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Castaway
1 appearance
Jockey who won the 1981 Grand National on Aldonetti after recovering from cancer.
On the island
Eight records
I bought this record because I liked it when I first met my wife and I bought it for her. Through the storm.
Well, when I was um about fifteen or sixteen, I was after this girl, she was about eighteen, and she wouldn't have anything to do with me, so I thought about this record it was going around then.
Bridge Over Troubled WaterFavourite
Well, my third record I think is the greatest record that's ever been made.
Well my fourth record is um seen as that I'm on this desert island and most likely be there for Christmas is Happy Christmas by John Lennon.
Well, my next record's the theme music from the film Champions. I suppose I'm going to have to have it. I do like the music. The film meant a lot to me and hopefully it's given a lot of people a lot of hope.
Well the last record I'd take with me would be Glen Campbell Singing Galveston.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:53Tell me about that day in the spring of 1981 when you and Aldaniti won the Grand National. Do you remember it clearly?
Yeah, it was sunny, um, which I always thought I rode better in the sun. It was a race that I always thought I'd win. ... For about two years before. Um when I was in hospital I um used it as a goal to get back to riding.
Presenter asks
3:30Did you know that very morning in 1981 that that race was going to be yours that day?
Yeah, I went there and I [didn't think I could get beat]. You know, it's a funny eerie feeling, you know, there's only about three races [in my whole career] that I thought was absolute moral certainty. And you're talking about the Grand National, you know, everything has to go your way, and it just did.
Presenter asks
6:01Is there a feeling to beat it in the world, do you think, winning the National?
No, I don't think there is. But you don't get enough time to think about it, because um soon as you've pulled up you've got about four great big policemen surrounding you on horses and um your life isn't your own for a couple of hours. ... I didn't really get time to think about it until I was on the motorway going home.
The keepsakes
The book
Fraser
It's a complete book of horse care. Um basically it helped me an awful lot with the veterinary side of my business. It would save an awful lot in vets bills.
The luxury
bronze statue of Old and Eighty Jump in the Chair by Philip Blacker
I would have taken smoked salmon and champagne, but every time I eat the two together I always get gout, so um I've got a lovely bronze at home of Old and Eighty Jump in the Chair by Philip Blacker. I would take that. It is very, very good and I love it.
Presenter asks
7:17Did you have your eye on winning the National from an early age?
Yes, very early age. When I was about nine, eight or nine, um, I always used to go to the cinema to see the Grand National on the Pathé News before it was ever on television. And I used to sit there and think, Well, one day I'd love to ride in that race, never mind winning it, and I suppose it's always been an ambition.
Presenter asks
17:41What was [the chemotherapy] like? The experience of it?
A big shock, but I was very lucky that they told me exactly how I was going to feel. I really appreciate their honesty throughout the treatment. ... If you tell a patient how they're going to feel and what the treatment's going to be like, you go there prepared for it, but if you just say 'Oh, you're just having chemotherapy' and don't tell the patients about it, I think the patients believe that it's the cancer that's making them feel ill, not the treatment.
Presenter asks
26:25Do you count each day that you go on living as a bonus, or do you now take life for granted?
I think every day I wake up, um, it's a bonus, yes. You know, when you think I could have died a few years ago. And the little I've put back. I hope it does a bit of good for somebody.
“I didn't think I could get beat. You know, it's a funny eerie feeling, you know, there's only about three races in my whole career I won quite a few. That I thought was absolute moral certainty. And you're talking about the Grand National, you know, everything has to go your way, and it just did.”
“The treatment ... is very hard. Um I think the treatment's got an awful lot better according to the doctors. They're using different drugs, but it's still not very pleasant. I wasn't gonna have any treatment to begin with. I thought, well, you only read about people that die of cancer, you don't ever read about people that live and um But the doctor persuaded me only by giving me odds. They gave me fifty to sixty percent chance of full recovery. I think if they'd said thirty percent, I wouldn't have gone through with it.”
“I was always determined I was going to get better. I think it was harder for the visitors than me, myself, actually, because when you go and see someone in hospital, you just don't know what to say. And it's really hard work I find that, you know, you're trying to cheer somebody up and you're not so sure yourself when you see all the patients around you with no hair and you looking like death, you know, what do you say to people?”
“I just didn't want to die, so I thought, well, I'm gonna have to get better. And luckily the treatment worked.”
“[the charity] set up a unit in the Royal Marsden. It's to find cures and cure cancers in young people. and hopefully it's doing a lot of good.”
“I go once a year now. That's the most frightening thing I ever do. About three weeks before I go, I start getting aches and pains all over my body. And they get worse and worse as the nearer the tests come, and as soon as you've had the tests and the doctor says you're alright, they disappear instantly.”