Great and the good give Sir Bobby Robson praise

Mar 5 2009 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

THE North East’s great and good last night paid tribute to Sir Bobby Robson’s latest achievement in opening a world-class cancer centre in Newcastle.

The Journal has dedicated a special section of its website to Sir Bobby so people can leave messages and tributes to him.

So far 120 messages have been left on the site, while scores of people have also written in with their feelings on the former Newcastle and England boss.

The words of praise are to be collected and printed in a book which will be presented to Sir Bobby.

We invited people to log on to our site following the opening of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre – equipped using money raised through Sir Bobby’s Foundation.

Doug Henderson, MP for Newcastle North, said: “He is a great man – a great football man – a great man in the North East and a really decent human being.

“I remember him when I was a kid as a young player.

“He has stuck to the various tasks he has set himself through his life with dedication and good humour.

“We all regard him so highly. I have followed him since I had short trousers on – I have been a football addict since I was young – so I have so much respect for him.”

More than £1.2m was raised in just under a year for Sir Bobby’s drive to fund the new research centre at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital. It was more than double the amount he set out to achieve. Based within the Northern Centre for Cancer Care at the Freeman Hospital, the research unit will develop and test new cancer treatments.

The new centre will bring together all the clinical research staff working to improve cancer treatments into one purpose-built unit.

Researchers will carry out trials of new drugs and offer patients access to early trials. Andrew Dixon, chief executive of NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said: “I think he has been inspirational in many ways, not least in unlocking the philanthropy in the North East and encouraging people to make personal commitments to charitable causes.

“Ambassadors like him, Niall Quinn and Alan Shearer, who both gave up their testimonial funds to charity, are a great credit to the generosity of the North East.

“I think the centre will have a big impact and it’s making a strength of the fact that it’s an important centre for medical research and having that centre here will not only help lots of people who are ill but will hopefully benefit generations to come.”

Meanwhile, James Ramsbotham, chief executive of The North East Chamber of Commerce, said the cancer centre was “the latest in a line of great achievements for Sir Bobby”.

“Whatever he has set his heart to do in has achieved to the absolute maximum,” he said.

“It is so typical of him to give so much of himself for others and it says so much about him that he achieved so much in such a short space of time.

“It’s a lasting legacy to one of the great men of the North East.”

Whatever he has set his heart to do in has achieved to the absolute maximum