Legend. It’s a word that’s used far too much in our opinion nowadays because we had the honour of knowing a man who truly deserved such an accolade.
Roy Castle was a beloved entertainer. He could dance. He could sing. He could act. He could play dozens of instruments. He held multiple world records. But this isn’t what made him earn ‘legend’ status; it was the selfless way he lived out the final few months of his life.
On 20th July 1994, Roy embarked on an epic three-day quest – subsequently called the Tour of Hope – a journey across the UK raising the profile of lung cancer and funds for essential research. He was desperately ill at the time, so much so that it nearly didn’t happen.
“Fiona [Castle] rang me a couple of days before it was due to start,” recalls Professor Ray Donnelly MBE, founder of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. “She said ‘I don’t think we can do this. He isn’t very well.’ But Roy being Roy, he was adamant he wanted to do.
“Then, when we were travelling from London to Liverpool the day before, Pauline Murphy, the first lung cancer support nurse in this country, came to me and said, ‘I’m not sure he’s breathing’. That’s how poorly he was.”
And yet, when the train pulled in the station, the crowds and media were simply unaware of the drama that was unfolding.
Roy would step onto the platform, arms waving with his big beaming smile. He’d do countless interviews to put a face to lung cancer. He’d collect kind donations which eventually totalled to over £1million.
“Roy would say it was Dr Footlight,” described his wife Fiona, “that strange occurrence when – no matter how sick you are – you are instantly healed for the duration of the performance. As soon as that spotlight was on Roy, he performed!
“Then he’d get back on the train and collapse onto the bed they had set up for him in one of the carriages. We’d given him some morphine and tell him to sleep until the next stop.”
Deteriorating fast
It was during the northern part of the tour when Roy’s health deteriorated. Fearing he couldn’t endure the long train journey from Newcastle to Glasgow, Roy boarded a plane kindly donated by Littlewoods. Again, everyone remained oblivious of Roy’s imminent decline.
“At every station, Roy would do interviews with the media,” Professor Donnelly marvelled. “But he was in pain. He hadn’t been eating anything for about three weeks because the tumour in his chest was pressing on his gullet and he couldn’t swallow food.
But as he approached the stations, he would do without the morphine, so he was alert and able to do his interviews. That’s how remarkable and selfless he was.”
Then as he travelled down to Carlisle, Roy started to experience headaches. The team arranged for an oncologist to join the train to check him over. They reassured him that these symptoms were to be expected in his condition and so the journey continued to Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Plymouth before arriving at its final destination – Waterloo International in London.
Roy was wheeled to the front of the train where a plaque was unveiled. It read Roy Castle OBE, a small trinket of appreciation to mark this extraordinary achievement.
Always putting other first
But, in reality, there was no way to truly match this momentous effort other than to continue what Roy set out to do: to improve the early detection of lung cancer “for our children and our children’s”.
“Roy’s incredibly public experience with lung cancer was the first step in improving outcomes for lung cancer,” says Paula Chadwick, chief executive of Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
“His unwavering commitment has helped us achieve so much over the last 30 years and I am proud his dedication still drives everything we do – from the support we provide to everyone affected by lung cancer to the campaigns that strive to amplify his message, all the research undertaken over the past three decades to pave the way for early detection and the implementation of lung cancer screening.
“Would this have happened without Roy? I’m just so grateful we don’t have to answer that. Instead, we get to witness Roy’s legacy in action and will continue to do so for as long as this charity remains.”
