For many passionate football fans, a famous Bill Shankly quote sums up their feelings about the game quite well: 

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death; I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Unfortunately, several events in the last few months have put that throwaway line into stark perspective against the realities of life. To begin with, there was the shocking news of young West Ham star Dylan Tombides being diagnosed with testicular cancer at the all-too young age of 17. More recently, there was a story about former EPL player Steed Malbranque retiring from football at the age of 31 to care for his cancer-stricken son (although that was later espoused as a bizarre fabrication). 

The last piece of news was altogether more personal. In late July, around the same time that Tombides received his own bad news, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma whilst still living in the UK. Away from my whole support network apart from a great boss, a select group of English and Aussie friends, and one very worried girlfriend, I decided to move back to Australia before starting treatment. Needless to say, the following month wasn't something I'd like to repeat any time soon - but the main thing is I'm now back in Perth and as I type this my first round of chemotherapy is already underway (though I do feel a bit like an old sock who's gone through the wash a few too many times).

So with that in mind, I can really understand how Dylan felt, what his family experienced, and the sort of things he'll be going through. And like Dylan, I will have to put my football career aside - just as I was about to catch Holger's eye, too - and focus on treatment and recovery for the next little while. Frankly though, the total lack of support from my club has been shocking - whilst Dylan's former teams have put on charity fundraisers for cancer research, my assistant manager and club chairman have remained utterly silent in Football Manager 2010. It's a bloody disgrace! 

Coming back to the original Shankly quote though, it's amazing how news about kids like Dylan really puts those words in perspective. Many of us just about live by them, so passionate is our love of the world game - but at the end of the day, when the keyboard is pushed aside and you're sitting in a doctor's office receiving the news instead of shouting from the terraces, it's pretty remarkable just how insignificant football can seem. Whilst I've never paid too much heed to such arguments anyway, it's hilarious just how petty 'problems' like average attendances, the colour of a team's kit, or the latest developments in The Great Code War can seem when you're working out a regime of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the next six months or so.

Yet that's not to say football is an entirely meaningless pursuit for the ignorant and happy - far from it. The ability to stop yourself overthinking, stressing, and worrying about things in my situation is very important, and there's nothing like watching Match Of The Day, reading a good FourFourTwo magazine, or chatting online about the latest developments at Glory for that. No doubt Dylan too is keeping abreast of the world game and his own club's movements despite receiving treatment. The sport also provides positive role models - Tombides himself can look to the likes of Craig Moore and Millwall's Neil Harris who have come through testicular cancer during their careers, the former already having shared some of his experience with the young man. 

Football is also a really positive influence in the course of promoting awareness and raising money for good causes - even if it's just the fans themselves. During my time in England I went to a lower league match whereby fans all donated a few quid into a bucket collecting money for a local hospice that had cared for an ex-chairman; and back in Perth a few years earlier, Glory fans held an infamous (and very successful) 'Dress Like A Pirate Day' fundraiser for CanTeen, selling bandannas to the unsuspecting and somewhat confused general public. Granted security confiscated my soft plastic pirate cutlass on account of it being a dangerous weapon, but it was nonetheless a great day for a great cause. More recently in Perth, Socceroos keeper Brad Jones threw his support behind Football West's state cup competition, the final of which was named the Donate Blood Cup Final to raise awareness of the important role blood donations have in helping your fellow man - including Jones' own son Luca, diagnosed with leukaemia at just four years old. 

Football then, for all its hooligans and ridiculous salaries and transfer fees that could fund entirely new areas of medical research, can be a great positive force in people's lives. Friendships, relationships, entire communities can be born of and grow out of it. Of course now that I'm back in Australia undergoing treatment, I need to stay away from large crowds of people and as a result that means I could sadly miss a great deal of the A-League season. Even worse, I'm in a Foxtel-less house and refuse to purchase 50 channels of crap simply to watch the one channel that shows what I like, bringing home yet again the truth of Michael Flynn's excellent Orange Slices column here on FourFourTwo about the need to take the next step forward in broadcasting games. Frankly, after the experience of living in the UK and enjoying many hours of football each week even without the use of PayTV services like Sky, it does sadden me that we don't even have an equivalent of Match Of The Day, the EPL Magazine Show, or Final Score.

Still, chin up - armed with a 442 subscription, an internet connection, SBS, or even a good old fashioned radio, there's no reason why I can't still enjoy live football or a weekly wrap of the world game - and one of the good things about football, and any sport really, is that in many cases you don't need the major commercial stations to feel part of it. It's something that people talk about, something that generates its own news - the very pages of FourFourTwo columns that you're reading right now are a perfect example. 

For all the good done by the Fox Sports team, it's the football community who perpetuates the game forward and spreads it throughout society; and that's not something controlled by a switch, or accessed via a subscription fee. We're all part of that community. It doesn't matter if you're sitting in the eastern grandstand, playing on the pitch, or a young footballer having to spend time in hospital. So when you're out on the stands and terraces this year, why not spare a thought, a fiver, or even some of your blood for people like Brad Jones' young lad. Organise a charity collection with your fan groups and turn it into a great day out. Contact your club about visiting children's hospitals in your area. Support your local grassroots club, and the people who make it up. Show others that whilst you know football isn't a matter of life or death, it's a lot more than just 90 minutes and a couple of nets.

The new A-League slogan states clearly; WE ARE FOOTBALL. Why not show people just what football can mean?