Harold van der Kruijk from Monster has just 26 per cent lung capacity, sleeps on oxygen and needs an oxygen tank when he works in the greenhouse.
Doctors are amazed he is still this active.
With Amy, named after one of his four grandchildren, he won the celebrated race from Pau in France, more than 1,000 kilometres away.
Amy was the first of all the returning birds to land, and a tracker told Harold at 4.54am that she was home.
Several people offered him serious money for her afterwards, but she is still in the garden and he lets her out every evening.
Amy now has her own small loft right next to the house, where Harold hopes she will lay eggs.
He can no longer clean the lofts without a mask that pumps in fresh air, and without it he says keeping pigeons would be over.
His specialist at the Haga Hospital in The Hague has referred him to Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, where he may qualify for a lung transplant.
A full medical check is due shortly.
Harold says the pigeons are the reason he still works and keeps going, and his pigeon club helps him.
