BREWER – Russ Nealey didn’t win Monday’s individual knockout portion of the World Team Candlepin Bowling Championships, Chris Hollett of Halifax, Nova Scotia, did that. But that’s OK with Nealey. He was bowling and that’s all he really wanted to do.

Nealey, a six-time Maine state individual champion and a member of the Maine Heat team, the defending world champions based out of Bangor-Brewer Lanes, recently found out that he has throat cancer. Just two weeks ago, he went through his first week of chemotherapy. And he faces more weeks more of treatment.

But he’d rather talk about bowling. He’d rather talk about the Maine Heat. In fact, his treatment worked out so that he will be able bowl this week. He wanted the chance to help defend the team’s first championship.

“That’s why I wanted to be here for sure. For a while there I didn’t know if I was going to be able to bowl. But I’m going to be able to bowl and hopefully help the team,” Nealey said.

Nealey’s cancer was discovered shortly after he’d undergone an operation for a double hernia. His throat had been sore prior to the surgery. He was referred to a Bangor doctor who conducted a CAT scan on the Otis resident. A biopsy revealing the cancer followed.

Nealey and his wife, Sharon, went through several rough weeks. They were in the dark. They didn’t know the severity of his illness.

“He looked at me one day and asked, ‘Are you OK?’ and I said, no are you? He said ‘No.’ It was very difficult,” Sharon Nealey said.

Finally, after three weeks, they met with a doctor and Nealey heard a word that brought relief and hope.

“The minute I heard the word ‘treatable,’ I got pretty excited,” the 59-year-old Nealey said.

Nealey said there’s no explanation for the cancer. He has never smoked or used tobacco products. Doctors told him that he could have had the cancer for about two years in something of a dormant state before it before it became active. He said the cancer is in its third stage.

“I guess there’s different parts to even stage three. They say it’s a good stage three, not a bad, and there’s an 80 percent chance they can get it all,” Nealey said.

Nealey and his wife own and operate Oxford Hills Bowling Lanes in South Paris. They had been leasing it out but that didn’t work, so now they live in an apartment there and return home to Otis as often as possible.

Sharon Nealey said the bowling and the bowling center have been a good therapy for both of them. Friends and bowlers have shown their support to the couple.

“I think it’s a lot better for him to do this [bowl] because it keeps his mind off [his illness]. We both bowl. It helps to have that,” Sharon Nealey said.

So, when the team portion of the championships begin this morning at 9, Nealey will join his Maine Heat teammates, Charles Milan III and James Milan of Brewer, Shawn Morrison of Bangor, Jerry Scott of Brewer and Tim Matero of Rockport and Nealey’s son, Nate Nealey, to begin defending their championship.

Last year, Maine Heat won the tournament in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and they’d like to win it for the first time in their home lanes.

“That’s it. That’s why I wanted to be here for sure. For a while there I didn’t know I was going to be able to bowl. But I’m going to be able to bowl and hopefully help the team,” Nealy said.