EXCLUSIVE: The former jockey who famously won the Grand National after being given four months to live has a new battle on his hands

Bob Champion has opened up on his battle to beat cancer a second time, saying ‘We’re on top of it’ as he undergoes treatment.

The former jump jockey performed one of the greatest of all comebacks when he survived cancer to win the 1981 Grand National on Aldiniti. Eighteen months earlier he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer and given months to live when it was discovered the disease had spread to his lungs.

Yet in the face of adversity Champion came through surgeries and intense chemotherapy to make a full recovery and return to the top of his sport to record his famous victory at Aintree.

His story was made into the Hollywood film, Champions, in which Champion was played by John Hurt.

For the past six months Champion, 78, has been undergoing treatment for bladder cancer. This time the symptoms were picked up early.

“I was a little bit upset when I found out about it but we’re on top of it, which is the main thing,” he told Mirror Racing. “At least I had been seen before it got too bad. I don’t know about being tough though, I don’t like it.

“I am able to get out and about. I was knackered last night after treatment but I am better today and will be a lot better tomorrow.”

He went on: “I’ve been going through chemotherapy for the last six months. I had treatment yesterday, then I have treatment next Monday, then again the following Tuesday. Then I get a rest again, and then no doubt they will hit me again.

“They have always kept an eye on me and they discovered it in my bladder. Hopefully they are on top of it. I think they are. The treatment does knock me down the first day but after that I am all right.”

In 1983 Champion established the Bob Champion Cancer Trust to support research into all forms of cancer, particularly prostate cancer, at centres in London and Norwich. To date more than £17 million has been raised. He was made a CBE in the 2021 New Year's Honours List for services to prostate and testicular cancer research.

On Monday he attended the latest fundraiser event when Plumpton hosted the Bob Champion Cancer Trust Race Day.

Champion said: “We mostly look into prostate cancer, which is the biggest cancer in men. We have one research centre in the Royal Marsden in London and one in Norwich Science Park. We fund them and thankfully the scientists are coming up with the goods. One in three people get cancer now and live to a fair age.”

The work of cancer charities like his trust have ensured there have been significant advances in the detection and treatment of cancers.

He reflected: “This treatment is nothing like when I had testicular cancer. That then was bad. Science and research has done such a great job that the treatment is a lot better, less toxic and there are less side effects.

“If I had to have the treatment I went through when I had testicular cancer, I don’t think I’d have gone for it. It was bad in those days.”

He added: “You haven’t got rid of me yet.”