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The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation aims to raise £500,000 to equip a new North-East cancer research centre.

But how does it feel to be diagnosed with cancer five times? Owen Amos talks to Sir Bobby

ON Saturday, Sir Bobby Robson watched Sunderland v Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light. As he left, two Sunderland fans waited for him. Did they confront the ex-Newcastle manager?

Give him stick? Gloat about Sunderland's Premiership survival? Not quite.

"It was two old codgers. They said Hey, Bobby' and shoved something in my hand," says Sir Bobby, who left Newcastle in 2004. "They said For your foundation'. I shouted Hey, what's your address?' but they went. One had given me a tenner and one gave me 20."

It's doubtful Graeme Souness, say, would get that treatment. But - even in Sunderland - Sir Bobby is not defined as an ex-Newcastle manager. He's defined as a football gentleman, a global ambassador for Langley Park, for the North-East and for England.

It's no surprise the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation is raising hundreds of thousands to kit out a Freeman Hospital cancer research centre. Forget Coca-Cola or Cadbury's: the world's best marketing men could not conjure a more popular name than his.

Sir Bobby left his final football job - advisor to then Ireland manager Steve Staunton - late last year. Yet, despite fighting cancer for the fifth time, and partial paralysis, he will not sit in his slippers in front of Sky Sports News.

"We were a r r a n g i n g his diary and I said a certain day had been left free,"

his secretary says. "He said Why is it free? Other people don't have free days'. I said Yes, but other people aren't 75 and not very well'"

His first battle was bowel cancer, diagnosed in 1992 while managing PSV Eindhoven. "I was shocked, but not frightened, to be honest," he says.

"I was told I needed an operation quickly and was recommended a surgeon who had done the operation 300 times. You have miles and miles of intestine and they take out the affected area and stick it back together. It didn't bother me too much because I have a strong mentality, a strong head. I knew I was in capable hands."

Sir Bobby says his second diagnosis, while at Porto in 1995, was the worst. "I got the shock of my life. I had no symptoms, no swelling, no nothing. I was getting my sinuses cleaned out. They took some muck out, did a biopsy and told me I had a melanoma. They said it was very rare, and it shocked me."

The operation - "pretty gruesome" he says - involved his mouth and face being cut. "The doctor said Have you got any money?' I said a bit, and he said Good. Most people with this problem retire'.

They said take at least six months off, come back in January. I was back by October.

"I was bored after three months out. I wanted to go back. My football was more important than cancer.

Cancer will kill you, but I couldn't live without football. I needed the game."

Not everyone shared his optimism. "A couple of years ago, I spoke to the surgeon who operated in 1995," Sir Bobby says. "He said We thought you would be dead in a year and a half'. Well, I've had 13 years since then."

Sir Bobby did not just survive, he prospered. But, after managing Barcelona and Newcastle United, cancer returned in 2006. "I was skiing, fell and hurt my ribs," he says. "I had an x-ray - my ribs were okay, but there was a shadow on my lung. If I hadn't had that accident, I wouldn't be here today.

Someone up there was looking after me."

After being told he had cancer for the third time in 11 years, did he feel cursed?

"Not really," says Sir Bobby, smiling. "I never thought I'd have such an active life, be on the pitch for more than 50 years. My life has been exhilarating.

I've been a lucky guy, a very lucky guy. I say I've been in the game 50 years, I've had amazing health'. My wife says Amazing health? You've had cancer five times!"

Later in 2006, Sir Bobby had a brain tumour removed and, last year, his lung tumour returned.

Yet, despite ongoing chemotherapy, cancer has not affected him most. "After by brain operation, I had a slight brain hemorrhage, which left me partially paralysed down one side," he says. "So my driving has gone, golf, tying my shoelaces, doing my garden.

That has been almost worse than the cancer."

The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation - which aims to raise at least £500,000 - began after Dr Ruth Plummer, treating his latest lung cancer, asked for help.

"Dr Ruth very sheepishly asked me if I knew anyone that could help the project," he says. "I went home, spoke to my wife and my secretary and we decided the best way was to form a small committee and use my name."

Big backers include the Esh Group, Dickinson Dees and Tait Walker. But it's the smaller donations that Sir Bobby delights in. He reveals a letter from a 13-year-old girl, immaculately written on Winnie the Pooh paper. The girl, after reading of the foundation, told her friends and family to donate to it rather than buy her birthday presents.

IFOUND that letter so touching, most sincere,"

says Sir Bobby, so enthused he grabs my hand. "That's what love and warmth and care is about. It's a lovely letter and it made me very proud. It's about the £5, £10, £20 donations - the money from Billy, Betty, Johnny, Harry - from normal, generous people."

So how would Sir Bobby Robson like to be remembered?

As the man who led England's second best World Cup campaign? The man who led Newcastle against Europe's best? The man who won the FA Cup and Uefa Cup with Ipswich, the Dutch league with PSV, the Portuguese league and cup with Porto, and the Spanish Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup with Barcelona? Not quite.

"Just as a proper person," he says, after much thought. "A proper person who worked hard and did his duty to football."

Modest, as ever. The people whose lives are saved by the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre may be more effusive.

■ To donate to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, visit justgiving.com/thesirbobby robsonfoundation, or send a cheque to Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, PO Box 307, Heaton, Newcastle, NE7 7QG.

* The foundation will host a celebrity sports dinner at the Bamburgh Suite, St James's Park, on Friday, May 9. Tickets are £75, to include dinner, celebrity Question of Sport and an afterdinner speaker. Call 0191-2018525 or visit www.nufc.co.uk to buy.

9:17am Tuesday 29th April 2008

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