Sports
Muchemi’s brave fight with cancer earns him top award
Ben Muchemi’s Equity Bank-sponsored Subaru Impreza in full flight during last year’s Kenya National Rally Championship. Muchemi battled against cancer in 2008 before returning to action in local rallying last season. Photos/ FILE
Posted Monday, February 1 2010 at 19:00
In Summary
- He was bed-ridden in Kenya and India before recovering to return to rallying
Doctors gave him a six percent chance survival. Rally driver Ben Muchemi was being shunned by many of his fans who had given up hope of him ever turning round to recover well enough from stomach cancer to even walk, let alone sit behind the wheel of his favourite Subaru Impreza.
He was bed-ridden in Nairobi and Mumbai, before recovering well enough to move around in a wheelchair as he battled with the illness.
“But I knew I still had work to finish and I owe my mentor (the late) John Ngunjiri in whose memory I promised to launch a rallying school to keep his initiative and dream of introducing rallying to the public alive,” said Muchemi who stunned all with his remarkable recovery that saw him win the coveted Kenya Motorports Personality of the Year for 2009.
Positive thinking
Muchemi had seen his elder brother, Major-General Gerald Kinyua, die a year earlier from the same disease. But he was not about to give up his life without a fight.
“It requires determination, strong will and God’s grace. The biggest secret to survival of any threat in this world is positive thinking, I certainly had so much I had not done. I wanted to finish what Ngunjiri started,” he said.
From the surgical ward in India, Muchemi flew to Eldoret last February and took part in his first rally since he was taken ill in 2008.
It is a move many were uneasy about, but “Baba Ciru” conquered personal fear and hit the road.
Shattered windscreen
A month later, he took part in the Safari Rally and finished 24th, navigated by George Njoroge, defying all the odds of the arduous race through harsh terrain that included a shattered windscreen.
Muchemi started rallying in 2005 after Ngunjiri, whom he was helping with car service at the Land Mawe garage, lured him into the sport.
He borrowed Ngunjiri’s Subaru Legacy pick-up and raced with it in the Guru Nanak Rally.
He was not lucky, through, as his navigator erred in reading the pace notes and their car ended up in a ditch.
“We had to spend the night in the bush in Konza, and they (rally organisers) did not trace us until the following day. It was a great experience for a novice,” he said.
But the rest is history.
Muchemi has grown to become one of the most celebrated local drivers.
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