Neither four bouts of neck and head cancer (the most recent causing him partial blindness in 2019), nor two years of covid-induced travel restrictions, can dissuade Nick Edmund from wanting to raise awareness and “fly the flag” for cancer fighters around the world.
Today at the Real Golf Club de San Sebastian and in the company of San Sebastian native, and two-time Masters champion, Jose Maria Olazabal, Nick began his 4th ‘walking golf route” in order to raise awareness of the GlobalGolf4Cancer campaign, which he founded in 2017. During this special “Golf Walk” Nick will carry a set of clubs and play the 4th hole of several nearby golf courses along the 300 kilometers of the Camino del Norte between San Sebastian and Santander. Today, he and Jose Maria Olazabal played the 4th hole at Real Golf Club de San Sebastian and Real Nuevo Club de Golf de Basozabal.
While consolidating the GlobalGolf4Cancer campaign across six continents (more info at www.globalgolf4cancer.org), Nick has completed three “golf routes”, including one in Scotland “Turnberry to Dornoch via St. Andrews”. However, it was during his first golf route in Ireland in 2017, when Nick had to take a break, due to major surgery, that the idea of undertaking the “golf route” on part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain came up.
José M. Olazábal explains: “When we learned of Nick’s amazing campaign and his tremendous battle with cancer, we invited him to the Olazábal & Nadal Invitational in Pula, Mallorca. It was there that we first discussed his hope of one day being able to do a round of golf part of El Camino, and I promised him that, if at any time he was able to attempt it, I would join him in San Sebastian, at my home, and I’m delighted that the plan is finally a reality.
According to four-time cancer survivor Nick, the number 4 is again ‘weaving its strange magic’. “I had to postpone the Camino route on a couple of occasions due to a combination of cancer and covid, so it’s easy to imagine how I felt when I discovered that it was exactly four years ago today from the date I arrived in Mallorca and this route of ‘the Camino’ was forged. I think an acquaintance of Jose Maria’s would describe this as “destiny”… Although when I take a look at the route that awaits me on El Camino, the English word that comes to mind is “difficult”.
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