Former North Melbourne star and coach Danielle Laidley has revealed she needs urgent surgery to deal with a rare brain tumour after receiving a shock diagnosis she says hit her ‘like a sledgehammer’.
The 58-year-old said she was recently diagnosed with a subependymoma, a type of benign tumor that develops in fluid-filled spaces in the brain.
Laidley’s tumour is also on her spinal cord, with the delicate location meaning she requires an operation to remove it as soon as possible.
‘I started getting headaches back around about October last year, and so I went to the doctors and had scans and CTE cans and MRIs and all that sort of stuff, and they found a brain tumour at the bottom of the back of my skull, on my spinal cord,’ Laidley told The Imperfects podcast.
‘[It’s a] very rare tumour. I can sit here today and use a quote from my surgeon: It’s not going to kill me, but being on my spinal cord, it has to come out.
‘It’s sort of like walking around with a stone in your shoe. Some days it really hurts, and other days it’s OK.’
Footy great Danielle Laidley (pictured) is bracing for surgery to remove a brain tumour that is sitting on her spinal cord
The shocking diagnosis forced Laidley and her partner Donna Leckie (pictured together) to prepare for the worst
The shocking news forced Laidley and her partner Donna Leckie to prepare for the worst.
‘It really knocked our socks off,’ Laidley explained.
‘You start to think, “Well, what do I need to do to wind everything up?” and that sort of stuff.
‘That took its toll.’
The premiership-winning Kangaroos great said the news was so harrowing at first that it left her and Leckie speechless.
‘It was as blunt as, “You have a brain tumour, here’s a referral, off you go.”
‘Donna and I went really quiet.
‘For Donna to be quiet, you’ve got to understand [that means] something’s not normal.
Laidley and Leckie were left speechless by the diagnosis until their fears were eased when they learned more about the nature of the tumour
Laidley is pictured in 2002, shortly before she was named head coach of North Melbourne – where she won the 1996 grand final as a player
‘At that point in time, we didn’t know what sort of brain tumour. When you say brain tumour, it’s like getting hit over the head with a sledgehammer.’
However, once the benign nature of the tumour was explained, the couple realised ‘we’re going to be OK’, Laidley explained.
‘Every now and then I’ll think, gee, I’ve got a brain tumour, which is the downside of it.
‘But the upside is – a great upside – it can be fixed and we can get on with our life.’
Subependymoma tumours can cause headaches, nausea and vision problems, among other symptoms.
Laidley initially began her career in top-flight footy in 1987 with West Coast before joining North Melbourne in 1993.
She’d go on to make 99 appearances with the Kangaroos, winning the premiership in 1996, before going on to retire a year later.
She would subsequently step into coaching taking up a role at Collingwood as an assistant under Mick Malthouse, before going on to join her former side, North Melbourne, as senior coach from 2003 to 2009.
In 2020, Dani’s life was turned upside down when she was arrested under accusations of stalking amid a battle with drug addiction.
The Kangaroos great (pictured at the 2022 Brownlow Medal ceremony) described living with the tumour as ‘like walking around with a stone in your shoe’
A Victorian police officer leaked photos to the media of Dani in custody while she wore a wig and make-up, which made her journey to transitioning to a woman public before she came out to family members and friends.
Victoria Police’s internal discipline board ordered 11 officers, ranging in rank from constable to sergeant, to pay up to $3,000 to Laidley out of their own pockets.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton formally apologised to Laidley after the photos went viral, saying he was ‘appalled’ by the officers’ behaviour.
In the Stan Original documentary Revealed – Danielle Laidley: Two Tribes, the Kangaroos great revealed she used to flirt with revealing her true identity when she was head coach of the club.
‘I used to go out when I was coaching, and I knew it was high-risk,’ she said.
‘I always felt on the inside how I appear now on the outside – always.’
