‘Big shock’: League legend’s sad reveal

The 61-year-old former 238 game veteran, NSW and Australian representative and 20-year coach revealed the tragic news on Thursday.

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Simmons is most remembered from the Panthers’ 1991 grand final victory over Canberra, where he scored two tries in the club’s first premiership victory.

However he also had a coaching career in rugby league, having coached Hill and St Helens in the UK Super League as well as a seven-year stint at his beloved Panthers as well as an assistant coaching stint with Tim Sheens at the Wests Tigers.

But in a story released on Thursday written by Neil Cadigan and published on the Penrith Panthers website, Simmons revealed the issue came to the surface during a weekend away at Kiama when he couldn’t remember his wife of 40 years Liane buying a bottle of wine at a bottle shop, while he was sitting in the car.

He went to get his brain scanned and while he expected to see some concussion damage, he was left stunned by what the scan revealed.

“The doctor said, ‘You told me you’d had a few concussions over the years; there are a couple of white marks which may have been from the concussions’,” Simmons said in the interview with Cadigan.

“And I’m thinking, ‘That’s good; just a couple of marks from concussions’.

“Then he pointed to another part of the brain and said, ‘Around here, that’s all Alzheimer’s’.

“It was like someone had knocked me off my feet.

“The rest of the appointment is just a blur; I was so shocked, even though in the back of my mind I was worried something might show up.”

Simmons also admitted to the Sydney Morning Herald that one of the hardest parts of the diagnosis was telling his family.

“I took my grandkids aside and spoke to them, that was so hard,” he said. “Trying to tell them that Pop won’t know them in a few years, that it’s not my fault, all of those sorts of things were really hard.”

The reaction was swift from the rugby league community.

Former Panthers hardman Martin Lang tweeted: “Royce Simmons is a legend. He is such a good person and the reason I signed with Penrith in 2001.

“This article sums up Royce’s toughness, resilience and selfless nature … with family being his greatest concern.”

Penrith Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher told 2GB’s Mark Levy: “It was a big shock to all the staff and everybody. Royce kept this to himself. He spoke to me a few months ago on the condition that I kept quiet.

“All he wants to do is just raise money for research and hopefully down the track they find a cure for it or they extend the term of it not affecting people so badly. His hearts in the right place and he’ll do a marvellous job. He’ll have a lot of good people around him — he’s Mr Penrith.”

But while the news was shocking, Simmons also revealed he wasn’t going to take it lying down.

Instead, he will walk approximately 300km between his hometown of Gooloogong to Penrith in May, a 10 day fundraising walk to support research in the causes of dementia, develop strategies to reduce dementia risk and slow the progression of the disease, improve diagnoses, improve treatment and care options and ultimately, find a cure for the disease.

The aim is that Simmons would cross the finish line at Penrith’s BluBet Stadium on May 27 before the kick-off of the Panther NRL clash against the North Queensland Cowboys.

Simmons’ initial goal is to raise $100,000 and has already raised more than $21,000 at time of writing.

Donate to Royce’s Big Walk here.

Originally published as Panthers legend Royce Simmons opens up on private health battle