Remembering ERIC ROY: The Man Who Took Brest to The Top With Stage 4 Cancer

Eric Roy found out he had 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝟒 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 at the time he signed for Brest… He fought it and 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 a word publicly or to his squad, said his wife Lœtitia in a emotional interview:

“He signed his contract on December 31. On January 1, he got on a plane and… After five days there, he told me: ‘Honey, my stomach still hurts, it’s terrible…’

He went to see the club doctor, Kergastel, and called me to say: ‘Come up, it’s not good…’ That’s when we were told that my husband had stage 4 pancreatic cancer with metastases throughout his body. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡.

He told me: ‘We’re going into fighter mode 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫!’

From the very beginning, we decided that he would keep working and honor his contract with Brest. The doctors thought we were a little crazy because they knew he would have to undergo very 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲. But I knew that working would keep him going.

When he arrived at Brest, the sporting situation was very difficult. Éric was appointed manager to 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. The players facing you think you’re the superhero who is going to stop them from being relegated to the second division.

So if you arrive saying: ‘Hello, I have cancer, I might die in a few months,’ it’s not going to work. So he kept it to himself. He told his president, Denis Le Saint, and his sporting director, Grégory Lorenzi, who told him not to worry and to take time for himself whenever he needed it.

We then thought it would be difficult to deal with other people’s fear. And he wanted to work peacefully and didn’t want his relationships with people to change.

𝐇𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩. He didn’t want people’s pity, nor did he want any special treatment.”