In 2006 Steve Prescott, the rugby league player, who has died aged 39, was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer and given six months to live. He defied the odds spectacularly and raised more than £500,000 for charity in the following years, completing a series of increasingly demanding physical tasks – always in a modest manner with a self-deprecating joke and an infectious smile.
Steve didn't want pity – nor, really, publicity. He was a bundle of nerves when he agreed to talk publicly about his condition for the first time, during television coverage of a midweek match at Widnes, purely to raise awareness of his first fundraising escapade, a trans-Pennine walk from Hull to the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford – shortly after he had completed a course of chemotherapy.
From that, momentum developed. He ran marathons, swam across the Humber and the Mersey and in 2009 led a group, many of them former St Helens team-mates, on a gruelling bike ride around France, then across the Channel for a half-marathon to the Challenge Cup final at Wembley.
The reception he received there, and at other major fixtures and dinners he attended, confirmed his status as a people's champion. In 2010 he was made an MBE. During some difficult times for rugby league in its northern heartlands, he reminded many waverers of the admirable qualities of the largely unsung heroes who play the game.
Steve was born in St Helens, Merseyside, son of Eric Prescott, a famously tough, as well as creative, forward for St Helens and Widnes. Steve was much smaller, a slight, brave and occasionally breathtaking full-back. He signed for St Helens in 1992, and was good enough to play in two cup wins at Wembley, to score 22 points on his England debut against France, and to make a Great Britain tour in 1996, although he did not make the Test team. In playing with a smile on his face and occasionally chancing his arm, he represented the best traditions of the St Helens club, although he became equally popular in Hull after joining them in 1998.
As the Guardian's rugby league correspondent, I admired Steve as a player, touring with him in 1996, and I watched in awe as he responded to his diagnosis with such courage. His main motivation was to raise money for the Christie hospital in Manchester where he had been treated, and the Rugby Football League Benevolent Fund that had recently been set up to assist former players. But he was also convinced that the challenges, which would have sent healthier but less determined characters running in the wrong direction, would help him in coping mentally with his condition – a belief that would seem to have been amply vindicated.
Steve is survived by his wife, Linzi, and two sons, Taylor and Koby.