Rugby legend Bruce fighting like a Lion to beat brain cancer

But even titanic contests against the Springboks and All Blacks today pale into insignificance as Bruce, now 56 and with his once robust frame weakened from powerful cocktails of cancer drugs, talks of battling his toughest opponent ever - a brain tumour.

The supremely fit athlete who once thrilled Scotland and Boroughmuir supporters with his gritty performances has been quietly and bravely facing the fixture of his life. As contests go, it's been the hardest he could ever have imagined - emotionally as well as physically.

"When you are diagnosed with cancer you just have to get on with things but there have been times when I have been quite emotional and it has not been easy for my wife, Lynda, and daughter, Lynsey, as well as other family members and friends," he admits.

Mercifully, according to the self-employed chemicals salesman, the prognosis is good following surgery at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital and intensive radiotherapy and chemotherapy courses.

"I have started feeling stronger every day and following one more trip to hospital [today] to assess my fitness to keep taking prescribed drugs, I could be ready to move back into rugby coaching with the reserve team at Boroughmuir."

It was last October, not long after hosting a reunion at his Mortonhall home for the Boroughmuir side which triumphed in a seven-a-side tournament at Melrose in 1975, that Hay's troubles began to emerge. A niggling stiff neck which had bothered him for years - he had put it down to wear and tear - was suddenly accompanied by another odd symptom.

"I realised I was having trouble turning up my toes so that when I couldn't do something as simple as pull on a pair of slippers I organised a scan at hospital," recalls Bruce.

"I limped into the hospital on December 10 and so worrying were the results of the scan that, effectively, I didn't get out until after surgeons had first shrunk what was a grade four tumour then operated on the cavity at the top of my brain where the thing had attached itself."

The medical verdict was a bombshell. "When I was diagnosed the seriousness of the situation was spelt out. I had a 25 per cent chance of having a stroke and a 20 per cent chance of suffering an epileptic fit on the operating table. On top of all that the scan revealed I had showings on both my kidneys and my liver though, thankfully, this turned out to be nothing severe.

"Those statistics meant sitting down with Lynda and attending to matters such as reading the small print of life assurance policies while I had to start winding down my business."

Ironically, Hay now believes that just as he realised his foot problems might be a symptom of a greater malaise so, on coming round in the post-op recovery room, it was the realisation that he had feeling in his toes that encouraged him most.

"Instantly I felt things had gone well," he recalls. "My sense of humour must have remained intact because looking around the room I first thought I was back delivering chemicals to Ethicon - a firm I used to visit because the surroundings were quite similar!

"That I had come through well was confirmed by my surgeon, Mr Grant, with whom I had bonded quite well since he referees rugby for the North Berwick club. Apparently the type of tumour I had could either attach itself to the brain like a leech or be like a tail. I never asked more and the fact doctors were positive encouraged me because I don't believe they foster hopes falsely.

"And instead of being taken to the high-dependency unit I was put in the semi-high-dependency ward where I had to be wakened every hour and assessed. That's where I had another reminder of how I might have been one of the lucky ones as I saw some real unfortunates whose lungs had collapsed and so on."

It may speak volumes for the level of fitness acquired by Bruce during his 23-cap Scotland career that two days after undergoing surgery he returned home.

"Christmas was approaching and I think there was an emphasis on trying to clear the wards of patients wherever possible but I must have made a good start to my recovery," he explains.

There was certainly no shortage of well-kent faces willing him back to health as he lay in hospital - SRU president and fellow British Lion Andy Irvine dropped by, while ex-national captain Jim Aitken also popped in with Rob Lowe, Bruce and Lynda's best man when they married 35 years earlier.

But handling the visitors was a tough challenge too. "It took a month or so before I could really make myself available to answer calls to my home because when you are told you have cancer and word gets out, every well-wisher seems to want to tell you of a similar situation involving people they know," says Bruce. "For a long time I couldn't handle that so, while obviously grateful for everyone's concern, a system was put in place whereby one of my rugby pals acted as an intermediary along with a family friend."

But the stress of his illness also had an impact on those around him - particularly his wife. "Early on Lynda suffered an asthma attack and was taken to hospital; she found it all very hard."

Yet amid it all, there's no doubting the verve with which the former full-back/wing is now adjusting to his new world; the fighting spirit which saw him take on some of the world's greatest rugby stars is back with a vengeance.

"At some points the doctors were pretty blunt with me and other than to read the pamphlets they provided on my illness I have not gone seeking out extra information as I put my trust in them. Everyone who knows me, however, is aware that I'll fight and I did it without thinking."

It's probably helped that he has kept himself fit. "Sure, I might have drunk a couple of pints too many on an occasional night out but I've always kept myself fit.

"Involvement in rugby either at Boroughmuir or managing Scotland under-19s has been a help."

He also had his background to draw on when the going got tough. He was just 15 when he left Liberton High to start an apprenticeship as an electrician working for the National Coal Board.

"I'd spend long hours down the pit which, in a way, conditioned me for going into the scanning tunnel," he says. "It meant I was used to confined spaces." Ten months on, Bruce takes great pride in showing off his latest handiwork, undertaken in a different type of restricted space, as he describes how he has used new-found time to transform the bathroom of the family home.

"Although I have got to pace myself and take regular breaks, a friend undertook the tiling and I installed the electrics and a walk-in shower. It's the sort of thing I've been meaning to do for ages."

Then there is the obviously well-kept garden, fishpond and vegetable patch visible through French windows and Bruce is also proud of his aviary containing around 50 parakeets and canaries. But it is rugby that offers the greatest sustenance - the goodwill messages have flooded in.

"[Ex-All Black] Stu Wilson is among those who have been in touch along with Terry Lineen, also from New Zealand and father of Sean," explains Bruce. "Also, it was great to hear from Craig Seagar, a former Boroughmuir player who has returned Down Under.

"Nearer home, reunions are planned with Welsh rugby contemporaries Elgan Rees, Graham Price, Tommy David, Derek Quinnell, Steve Fenwick and Jeff Squire, especially once I get my driving licence reinstated.

"Of my local friends Andy Irvine and Dougie Morgan are regularly in touch and it was good to see Dr Donald MacLeod, the former Scotland team surgeon, who told me about the time-scale I should be hoping to follow to get back to where I was before becoming ill."

As for the future, Bruce admits there's a long way to go until he's back to his beloved sport. "I always had a hankering to retire at 55 but never through ill-health; hopefully rugby can still provide me with an outlet for my energies," he says.

"Of course, I'm not there yet because when a doctor recently asked me if I could perform a simple exercise like hopping I found it hard. But I've always been positive in taking the 'tomorrow is another day' attitude to life.

"I can put up with anything so long as I am still here."