Former NBA center Jason Collins, who made history in 2013 as the league’s first openly gay active player, has publicly revealed he is battling stage 4 brain cancer, and has been given a prognosis of about one year to live.
Collins, 47, shared the gravity of his diagnosis in an interview with ESPN, explaining that the cancer developed rapidly, starting with subtle memory loss that escalated within weeks to the point he could no longer perform basic tasks. A scan revealed the cancer was aggressively growing on his frontal lobe.
With the support of his husband, film producer Brunson Green, Collins has begun an aggressive treatment plan including radiation and chemotherapy. He is currently in Singapore receiving specialized and experimental immunotherapy. Collins frames this fight as similar to the courage it took to come out, saying he is “right back in that position now” where he might be the first person through this wall. Despite the terminal diagnosis, he remains resolute, stating, “We aren’t going to sit back and let this cancer kill me without giving it a hell of a fight.”
