About Keith
Keith Champ born 1st October 1950 in Hammersmith Hospital, London. Keith then moved to Essex as a young boy and back to London as a teenager where he lived in various pubs with his mum and dad. Keith met his future wife Linda in 1969 on holiday in Malorca and later married in 1972. Keith worked in the British Museum as a bookbinder for HMSO and progressed into print, again for HMSO at the office in Waterloo.
In 1978 Keith and Linda moved to Norwich as HMSO was relocated. In 1980 their son Peter arrived and 2 years later their daughter Jenny. Not preoccupied with his new family and as a strong, persistant man; Keith continued to progress in his career and over the years moved up the ranks to become a manager.
Keith was always a very active man, taking part in many sports including tennis and table tennis, of which he was part of leagues in the Norwich area. In 1992 Keith found a new love (soon to be his greatest)... Golf.
It was a rocky start and as a family Linda, Peter and Jenny can all remember times where he swore he would give up the sport as he could not quite get the hang of it. But as all of you who knew Keith will recognise he was never one to give up, he persisted and became a very competent golfer.
Keith's Battle
In May 2008 after a number of months of Keith feeling under the weather he was diagnosed with Bowel cancer. This came as a tragic blow to the whole family but as always it was Keith who kept them fighting and pulling together. After only a number of months working for CDS Keith was devastated and had to leave to proceed with treatments.
By July 2008 the cancer had spread into his liver; Keith opted for the treatment of Chemotherapy - little did he know that his body would reject it. After only two treatments Keith had been hospitalised twice with chemo poison. This hit Keith hard leaving him very poorly with significantly reduced use of his legs and great loss of weight. Keith was moved to West Norwich Hospital early October in order to convalesce and did not leave hospital until late October, but just in time for a lovely family christmas..
In 2009 the cancer had spread again and was now also affecting his lungs. Keith was hospitalised in early March 2009 in order for a stent to be fitted into his liver to counteract the jaundice which he was suffering from. Again this did not go according to plan, Keith ended up with septicemia from this procedure which set him back yet again. In late March after what should have been a couple of days in hospital Keith was eventually allowed home but he needed a constant flow of morphine to cope with the excruciating pain he was in.
Throughout Keith's traumatic ordeal he was a constant fighter, he spent a great deal of time seeking out organic produce which was supposed to aid recovery from cancer as well as looking into private care in the UK and abroad. Keith never gave up, being positive until the bitter end which came on 5th April 2009. Keith was released surrounded by his ever loving family, a great man, a true fighter leaving a huge gap in the lives of everyone who ever knew him.
