⚒ Graham Welsh ⚒

Jonathan Pearce started working alongside Bobby Moore at Capital Gold in the early 1990s expecting to be a bit starstruck. This was England's World Cup-winning captain, after all. Moore never let it get that far. Over three years they covered football across Europe together, and Moore always insisted on driving to domestic games so Pearce could focus on his prep. “You do all the real work, Pearco.” “You need to be fresh.” By the end, Moore wasn't so much Pearce's hero as one of his closest mates. What Pearce didn't know was that Moore was seriously ill for much of that time. He'd had surgery in 1991 after a bowel cancer diagnosis, but kept how bad it was mostly to himself, and he kept working as it spread. “He knew the doctors could not cure the cancer that had started to destroy him.” “But he never told me.” Early in 1993, it was Pearce who suddenly feared he had cancer. And it was Bobby Moore who got him through it. “Speaking to me every day, reassuring my wife, telling me everything would be okay.” Every night Moore would phone, listen to Pearce's fears and settle him down. “He never once let on about his own illness, even though he knew that it was terminal.” Pearce eventually got the all-clear. Moore already knew he wouldn't. On the 13th of February, as Pearce headed off to cover an FA Cup game, Daily Mirror journalist Nigel Clarke took him to one side. The Sunday papers were about to report that Bobby Moore was dying. Pearce rang Moore's home in Putney, and this time Moore was honest with him. Pearce was in bits. Moore was the calm one. Two days later Pearce went round to record an interview, so Moore could talk about his illness publicly in his own words. Even then, he refused to sound beaten. “He didn’t want people to give in if they had cancer.” “He wanted people to fight against it.” On the 17th of February, England played San Marino at Wembley. Moore sat next to Pearce in the Capital Gold box, noticeably thinner, working a game at the ground where he'd lifted the World Cup 27 years before. It was his last public appearance. One more commentary was in the diary: West Ham v Newcastle at Upton Park. Moore wanted to go. His wife Stephanie didn't. Everyone knew how ill he was by then, and she worried his return to West Ham would become a media circus when he could barely cope. She asked Pearce to stop him, and Pearce agreed. So he had to tell Bobby Moore he couldn't commentate at his own club again. “I respect you, JP.” “I always will.” “I accept your decision.” “But you’ve disappointed me.” Those were the last words Moore ever spoke to him. He died the following Wednesday morning, the 24th of February 1993, aged 51. Pearce later said keeping him away from West Ham would stay with him for the rest of his life. For weeks he'd been terrified he had cancer, with a terminally ill man phoning every day to help him through it. "He knew the doctors could not cure the cancer that had started to destroy him." "But he never told me." “I will never replace him as a friend.” “The game will never know his like again.”