CHAMPION’S DEBT TO NHS HEROES
How racing’s greatest comeback led to £15m charity effort
BOB CHAMPION redefined the word ‘miracle’ when he conquered cancer to win a tear-jerking Grand National – the world’s toughest steeplechase – in 1981 on the crippled racehorse Aldaniti.
Arguably the greatest sporting comeback of all, certainly the most emotional, the North Yorkshire jump jockey who gave hope to sufferers around the world has now raised, through his charity, an incredible £15m for landmark research on the back of this improbable victory.
Now, to mark the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service, the rider has spoken of his profound debt to the pioneering medical teams and unsung heroes who saved his life – and the groundbreaking work of the Bob Champion Cancer Trust. “There was a porter called Les who liked a bet or two and therefore knew me,” he recalled. “He’d go off and get bottles of orange juice and tins of rice pudding from the little shop on the days I couldn’t make it myself.
“Nothing seemed too much trouble and I knew back then, and still now, hospital staff don’t get the recognition they deserve. We laud pop stars and actors and false heroes, when these carers, nurses, doctors and porters truly are the real thing. Since those days, I have been so lucky to work alongside the very best of the NHS and I am incredibly proud to be able to call so many friends.”
Even now, he had no comprehension of the magnitude of his achievement when he, and the gallant Aldaniti who has recovered from a life-threatening leg injury, galloped towards the Aintree winning post. Seventy last month, Champion tells that his thoughts in the final strides turned to the doctors and nurses who treated him at the acclaimed Royal Marsden Hospital near London – and the hope that the fairytale win would afford to cancer victims when he, himself, had no one to inspire his own recovery from testicular cancer.
He had not bargained, however, for the outpouring of emotion that led to once-a-year punters sending their winnings to the hospital that treated him and the acclaimed film starring the late John Hurt.
Nearly 40 years later, he still receives letters from cancer patients, and their relatives, and makes the time to send back a personal response because he can still remember his own ordeal – chronicled in a new memoir
– when the haunting word ‘cancer’ was invariably a ‘death sentence’.
He’s only too pleased to be able to set the record straight. “There was nobody for me to look up to and say how they got through it when I was undergoing my chemotherapy because it was so brutal,” he says. “It was a death sentence. They gave me a 35 per cent chance of recovery and they said I would never ride again because of the damage to my lungs. Today more than 90 per cent of people with testicular cancer will make a full recovery as long as it is caught soon enough. That’s a huge difference – but there’s more to do.”
Just like Champion never gave up when his loved ones were fearing for the worst, he continues to tour the country promoting his charity, its lifechanging work and to raise funds for two state-of-the-art research centres which are run in conjunction with the NHS.
The first was the Bob Champion Cancer Research Unit at the aforementioned Royal Marsden and which, over the years, has been looking at a range of medical challenges, including how to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy while lessening the debilitating side-effects like hair loss and nausea.
It is here where the Aldaniti Rehabilitation Unit and the Bob Champion Lounge became trailblazers for the NHS. “Initially I thought we could perhaps brighten up a number of areas in the hospital,” said Champion. “I could only give advice based on my direct experiences and whilst every member of medical staff was great, you did spend a great deal of time sitting around waiting. Some of the places you spent a lot of time in were fairly drab. I really believed, and thankfully my gut instincts were to be borne out with later studies, that having the right aesthetic atmosphere can make a difference to the healing process. I didn’t think it was rocket science. “You know yourself that if you enter a hospital waiting room that’s painted horribly, and has no atmosphere, you immediately feel worse and a bit depressed. Imagine how that affects the emotions of someone who is looking death in the face?”
It’s some legacy and he is immensely proud that this approach has been adopted by hospitals across the country and it is why the racing broadcaster Derek Thompson, a friend from childhood, believes that Champion’s surname should be preceded by two very deserved words – ‘Sir Bob’.
Meanwhile Champion’s pride was palpable three years ago when The Bob Champion Research and Education Building opened, a collaboration by the University of East Anglia (UAE) in partnership with the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital.
It provides state-of-the-art laboratories for researchers to explore new treatments and, specifically, the groundbreaking work of the aclaimed Professor Colin Cooper to develop a urine test that can diagnose prostate cancer and ultimately, whether it is the aggressive type. Once taboo, men’s health is now on the agenda.
Champion admits to being tearyeyed when he saw his name on the plaque and at the good fortune over his own diagnosis at a time when he thought he was unbreakable and took the NHS for granted whenever he was treated for a heavy fall.
Winning the next race, he says, was