Former Keeper-Coach Webster in Remission After Cancer Diagnosis Tuesday, 20th Dec 2022 15:35 Former Town keeper-coach Malcolm Webster is in remission having been diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier in the year. Webster, 72, first worked with the Blues under George Burley - when he coached Richard Wright as he came through the ranks - and having followed the Scot to Derby, Hearts and Southampton, returned to Portman Road to join Paul Jewell’s staff and stayed at the club after Mick McCarthy took charge before retiring in 2018. Born in Doncaster, Webster was with Arsenal, Fulham, Southend and Cambridge during a 16-year playing career. “It was a prostate cancer, which was locally advanced, which is not a good sign. But thankfully, due to the doctors picking it up reasonably early, the news is better now,” Webster said when speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk’s Life’s a Pitch (3hrs 23mins 39secs). “The way they talk about it, it’s all about your PSA [prostate-specific antigen] level. Back in February when I got diagnosed with it my PSA level was 41.2 [nanograms per millilitre], which didn’t mean anything to me at the time. “Then in July it got to 0.15, which was fantastic. That was down to hormone therapy and following the radiotherapy treatment, which was a five-week course of 20 sessions, it’s down to 0.1, so that’s even better. Great news. “If you’re below four on your PSA, that’s about normal-ish and if it’s above that they start to get a bit concerned and, as I say, mine was 41.2.” Webster says he found no aspect of the tests or treatment too uncomfortable: “The PSA test is just a blood test and following that I can’t say that any part of my treatment has been anything to think ‘Oh God, I wouldn’t like to have that done!’. “If you’ve got the signs, which are once you’re over 50, have a family history [of prostate cancer], changes to your toilet routines, then speak to your doctor and they should give you a PSA test.” Webster revealed that had circumstances been different current Blues first-team keeper Christian Walton might have been at the club a decade before he ultimately joined the club. “I coached a lad called Kevin Miller when he was at Crystal Palace and Kev lived down in the West Country and he recommended him to me when he was 16, he was at Plymouth at the time,” Webster recalled. “And then I think Brighton paid about £100,000 for him, off the top of my head. I remember speaking to people at the club, I think it might have been Paul Jewell and I think at that stage if they were going to spend 100 grand it wasn’t going to be on a 16-year-old. “He always had the potential, he went out on quite a few loans. Did OK, did not so well, then did very, very well and then at Town now he’s been an inspiration. “He’s got that communication with his back four and that’s one of the reasons they’re up at the top of the league.”
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