From death's door to National glory: Bob Champion and racing's greatest miracle

It was the biggest race of Bob Champion's life, one that has defined his existence ever since. Without it he would have gone down in history as a decent jump jockey rather than a racing legend who lifted his sport into the mass consciousness and has already raised £15 million for the good of the sick and the dying.

Yet, contrary to the accepted legend, Aintree was almost 200 miles away at the time and Aldaniti was nowhere to be seen. This was 1979 and Champion was in a race against time, not against horses or riders, and it was one he didn't dare lose.

He was in the middle of what he calls a "barbaric" course of primitive chemotherapy hurled at him in the hope of fighting off the cancer that was spreading through his body with murderous intent, but as he recuperated from the latest bout at his sister's house in Wiltshire, it seemed as if the grim reaper was winning the battle.