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How my football skills helped me kick cancer

Can mental toughness developed on the football field help kick cancer? Phil Brabbs thinks so.

It can be the loneliest job in all of sport. You sit on the sidelines and watch your team mates toil for the whole match, and American football games last for hours, but you might only be on the field for a matter of seconds. Yet it could be you alone who snatches victory or condemns your team to defeat. Welcome to the world of the place-kicker!

In 2002, in front of 110,000 people, Phil Brabbs kicked a last minute field goal to claim a place in University of Michigan football folklore. It's a moment that never left him and it was a good job too, because it was the mental toughness he developed during his football career that he credits with helping him beat his toughest challenge, cancer.

Photo: Phil Brabbs, Founder of the Cancer Kickers Foundation at the offices of the business he started Torrent Consulting (Credit: ´óÏó´«Ã½)

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4 minutes