Those with even just a passing knowledge of horse racing will be aware of who the late, great Pat Smullen was. For those not at the races, he was a jockey, widely considered to be one of the best in his generation.

Born in Rhode, Co. Offaly, Pat had a stellar career spanning from 1992 to 2018. He was awarded the Irish flat racing Champion Jockey title nine times.

However, Pat was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018, and retired from the saddle the following year.

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Around 620 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in Ireland. Unfortunately, the disease is difficult to treat and study, as biopsies can be difficult to get due to the location of the pancreas. Even when large tumour samples are extracted, they often provide very few cancer cells to study, due to the diffuse spread of cells in surrounding tissue.

Pancreatic cancer is also not as common as breast, lung, and colorectal cancers, so it hasn’t got the same level of public awareness. Pat’s family wants to change this.

While the champion jockey sadly passed away in September 2020 aged just 43, his family are continuing to raise vital funds for pancreatic cancer and have ensured Pat’s legacy lives on by setting up the Pat Smullen Pancreatic Cancer Fund.

“Pat was having treatment one day,” Frances Crowley, Pat’s wife, told RSVP. “A nurse said, ‘You know, with your profile you could do something for pancreatic cancer, by raising awareness and money for research.’ So in typical Pat fashion, he wasn’t satisfied unless he did it in a big way.”

Pat set about raising money for Cancer Trials Ireland by organising fundraising events with Horse Racing Ireland. The Irish Champions Weekend fundraiser took place in 2019 and raised €2.6 million. “That has been put to great use so far by opening trials for over 150 pancreatic cancer patients,” Frances said.

The money has also gone towards the creation of a new role, the Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at UCD. The person who gets this position will create a global centre of excellence for treatment and research, as well as attracting new trials to Ireland.

Frances said the support from the racing community and beyond has been phenomenal. “Pat appreciated the man on the street’s fiver every bit as much as the big donors. Everybody loved Pat and they were so devastated by what he was going through.”

Frances first met her husband through racing. “I rode professionally as a jockey for a few years, and I would have ridden against Pat in a few races. We both ended up working in Dubai and got together over there.”

She later retired from jockeying and began training racehorses, while her husband continued to jockey at a very high level. The pair married a few years later and eventually settled on a farm in Offaly.

Frances admitted there are still times where she can’t believe Pat is gone. “You just learn to live with it, we keep very busy,” she said. “This is my way of coping. Between the fundraising and the farm, where we breed racehorses, we are busy the whole time.”

After Pat’s death, Frances noticed that she seemed to be getting signs from him, such as lights flickering and discovering feathers and butterflies in unusual places. “It felt like we were being bombarded with signs after he died. A lot of people would be sceptical about it, but when these things started happening it was just crazy,” she continued. “I do feel he was letting us know that he was fine. Being so sick and in so much pain for a long time, it was a relief for him. He had to let us know he was at peace.”

The couple have three children, Hannah, Paddy and Sarah. The first Christmas after Pat died was tough for the family, but the devoted father and husband found a way to let them know he was there.

“We were down opening the presents at 5am. Next thing we heard this quiet knocking. It was a bird sitting on the windowsill tapping away at the window,” Frances added.

When asked if any of the children have an interest in horses, Frances says they all ride, but she doesn’t know if any will go pro. “Hannah is 20 and is studying law at Trinity, so I don’t think a career as a jockey is something she is going to pursue, but she has her amateur licence and she’s had her first couple of rides. She loves it. She’s very career-driven like her dad, so she’s studying hard and combining the two.”

Frances revealed that Pat first got sick when Hannah was doing her Junior Cert, and he died as she was starting her Leaving Cert year. “She ploughed on and worked hard, she was brilliant the way she got through everything,” she said.

Their 16-year-old son Paddy has a lovely horse that he takes eventing. “I think he’d like a go riding as an amateur jockey maybe. He’s a big lad and plays soccer so not sure he’s the build of a professional jockey.”

Sarah, the youngest, is 13 and has an interest in eventing as well. Frances said, “She’s also a good rider. It’s a bit early to tell where she will end up, but she says she’d like to be a jockey.” Being a jockey is not an easy route to take though, added Frances, and it requires a lot of commitment. “They saw how tough it was with Pat, so I am not sure if I would like to see them being a professional jockey.”

She describes her late husband as very driven and career focused. “Maybe to the detriment of his family life a bit, but I definitely supported him in his career. It was the way it had to be,” she recalled. “We both had a love of horses, the farm and outdoors. Just walking around and caring for the animals, that is when we were happiest.”

For more information on the work of Cancer Trials Ireland and the research funded by the Pat Smullen Pancreatic Cancer Fund, including the Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at UCD, visit cancertrials.ie/pat-smullen.

Read the full interview in this month’s issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves nationwide now.

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