Free falling through the air at almost 200km per hour isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.
However, ACRF supporter and cancer survivor, Robert Kendall, on 15 March, will be conquering his fear of heights and skydiving for cancer research.
Robert will also be doing this in celebration of his 76th birthday!
As a cancer survivor, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, is a charity very dear to Robert’s heart.
In 1995, when obtaining a mandatory medical for his jockey’s license, it was found Robert had an advanced stage of bowel cancer. He was immediately admitted to hospital where testing found he had just 1 litre of blood in his body. 26 hours of blood transfusions commenced and were followed up by an operation.
In the operating theatre, the surgeon placed his hand on Robert’s shoulder and said “Mr Kendall, we have about a 15% chance of getting you out of this”. In which Robert replied “Don’t worry, I’ll be back, I’ve got too much to do”.
And just 38 days after the operation Robert rode his fiancé Vicki’s horse ‘Neiwtun’ to victory, coming 1st in the Lismore race meet.
Now on the Gold Coast, Mr Kendall lives a quiet, simple life yet he likes to get out, have fun and stay physically active. He can be found at the Gold Coast Turf Club from 4am-7am, 5 days a week riding horses for trainer Helen Page. He has a passion for life and to ‘live it to its fullest’ and this coming Friday Robert will be doing just that, ticking skydiving off his ‘to do’ list.
After surviving cancer himself and recently losing a close friend to brain cancer Robert is determined to help find the cures for cancer, “for the future of our children and grandchildren”.
We’d like to wish Robert a very happy 76th birthday – we hope you have an amazing experience jumping at 15,000ft! We’d also like to thank him for his commitment and generosity to our cause.
If you’d like to find out more information about Robert, you can visit his Facebook page called Old Man’s Moment or his Everyday Hero page.
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