Tragedy for father of Monmore star

Rob Woffinden has big plans for his speedway star son, Tai. But he's also in a hurry.

Rob and wife Sue have just bought a house in Scunthorpe with existing planning permission for an enormous garage – ideal to hold all the 18-year-old Wolves rider's gear under one roof. But that planning permission, granted in 2004, runs out in two months, giving the family a race against time.

And there, as many speedway fans will already know, lies the bitterest of ironies. For Rob Woffinden, at 47, faces the ticking of a far more remorseless clock.

He has an inoperable tumour which medical experts fear will end his life before Christmas.

Rob's condition has been an open secret in a closed world. Speedway, clannish to the last, has formed a protective shield around one of its own to such extraordinary effect that no public word of his condition has leaked out.

But now he has chosen to make the facts known. His reason? To spare his son the intense level of media interest which will follow the passing away of his father.

In the course of a compelling near two-hour interview at the family's rented home near Tamworth, he ran over his own speedway career, emigration to Australia, Tai's first steps at the sport, subsequent success, possible future – and how doctors in Perth broke the dreadful news just before Rob's return to England.

"Far out, this is a wild story, this," he said.

"When I broke my leg when I was riding it was an inch and three-quarters shorter, so I've always struggled with backache.

"But Christmas this year I just got a bit of a different backache. And one night in February I sort of felt a bit sore inside and I didn't sleep very well.

"So I went to the doctor's with this backache and had a blood test.

"They rang me up the next day and said we need you in at the surgery.

"So I went back, went from the surgery to the hospital.

"They kept me in, did another test on my liver and the next day the doctor stood at the bottom of my bed and said: 'You've got a tumour on your pancreas which has gone to your liver and we can't do anything about it.'

"Because I had to wait an extra day for the test, I'd actually sent Sue and Tai back to England on the Friday.

"He stood at the bottom of my bed on Saturday and said I won't be here at Christmas.

"I actually got on a plane on the Tuesday and came back to England and had to tell Sue and Tai."

Rob – and it's impossible to spend any time in the company of this outgoing, sociable man and think of him as Mr Woffinden – is now having palliative chemotherapy in order to slow the cancer's onslaught.

"I was 81 kilos when I left Australia and I'm about 57 now," he said. "Because I've got the cancer I became diabetic at the same time.

"The first time I had my chemo I didn't know I was diabetic so I was eating the wrong stuff and I nearly died.

"They still reckon I won't be here at Christmas – but I'm a bit of a scrapper so I reckon I will be."

The burden on his son "has totally blown me away", he said.

"To actually have his first Elite League season and under-21 stuff and World Cup and all that lot with this round his neck, that he's going to lose his dad, is just something else that makes him a bit special to me, really."

His pride at watching his young son make his way at Monmore in what has been a successful season for Wolves in the Elite League is evident to see.

The tears of a parent followed at this point but Rob insisted on continuing.

"I'll be all right in a minute," he adds. "I just have me bits. Ah, dear!

"Tai actually handles it amazingly. I want to see him be world champion as well but I'm obviously not going to.

"When people say: 'I bet you're proud of Tai, aren't you?' they don't know how proud I am of him.

"I don't say anything to anybody. I don't big him up or anything, much – only to my mum."

Rob's coping mechanism is to throw himself into planning for Tai's future and what promises to be a glittering career in speedway.

"That's why I'm focused on him. To get him right.

"And mum, too. And nan."

And, with that, he was off to Nottingham to pick up some bike parts.

The following day there were footings to be dug at a certain garage.