Martina Navratilova has encountered various stumbling blocks in her long tennis career. Who would have imagined she would face more challenges after her tennis journey? Four years after retiring, the tennis legend received a cancer diagnosis in 2010. She recently revealed her father’s sage advice that inspired her during her recovery days, nearly 12 years after being in perfect health.

As she battled cancer, the 59-time Grand Slam winner applied her tennis court tenacity to the real world. Fast forward almost ten years, and the iconic Czech-American figure now promotes breast cancer awareness and prevention.

Martina Navratilova shares her father’s real health advice

The tennis legend, who braved cancer recently, talked, in an interview, about different aspects of the problem. The host asked her about what lifestyle changes Navratilova adopted after getting diagnosed with cancer. She said, “No, because I was already pretty healthy. I did not change my diet, although I did juice more afterwards.”

“It’s more about not worrying about stuff that just doesn’t matter. My father used to say if it doesn’t involve your health, it’s not worth poop. It’s so true, because when I was diagnosed, the whole world stopped for me. Everything else became irrelevant,” she added. She talked about a piece of advice that her father gave about worrying about the things that only matter to your health.

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The 59-time Grand Slam champion was already adhering to a healthy diet when she was an athlete. She was 53 when she learned about her cancer diagnosis. Additionally, since then she encouraged every woman to take care of herself before it was too late or became out of control.

Cancer came as a huge shock for Navratilova

The 66-year-old tennis pro is a breast cancer survivor herself. But when she learned the news, she was horrified and thought her entire life was crumbling. She previously stated in an interview, her initial thought came out like, “I’m this healthy person, I’ve been healthy all my life, and all of a sudden I have cancer. Are you kidding me?” 

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The 59-time Grand Slam winner was even more startled to learn that someone might follow a strict diet and still develop cancer. The tennis player has continued to emphasize the value of mammography ever since.