It's a simple, well-established maxim: spend time in the company of a member of the Louw family — or more specifically, Rob or Roxy — and you’re guaranteed much entertainment, minimal sleep, and a small orchestra playing riotously and off-key in your head the following morning. Roxy, when she’s not travelling the planet surfing and modelling, holds court at Caprice in Camps Bay, cheerfully inflicting tequila on unsuspecting passers-by and raising pulses in equal measure; following in the footsteps, then, of her famous father.

The 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand, countless Currie Cup matches, brutal hits on Naas Botha — rugby fans of a certain era glaze over with nostalgic fondness when the exploits of the fearless blonde flanker are recollected. The unkempt mane is still in place, salt and sun having bleached it further (Louw’s an obsessive surfer, and hits the waves with Roxy on a daily basis whenever they’re both in Cape Town), and the fierce joie de vivre remains undented — even now, thankfully. For while Louw has faced some tough opponents before, his current foe is nastiest by some distance: cancer.

Rob is in America at the moment, Johann Rupert having flown the Springbok over to see a leading specialist in the field of skin cancer, with which Louw was diagnosed just a fortnight ago. It's always a painful, sobering moment when someone you know gets the news that the most merciless of killers has moved in; that it's somebody, in this instance, as healthy and larger than life as Rob, only enhances the disbelief that accompanies the revelation.

But true to his character, there's a brave face and a determination to beat this that marks Rob's approach to the challenge facing him — cheerfully abusive text messages are still coming through, and backed by plenty of support from friends, family and rugby fans, Rob has plenty of fight to take into this particular battle.

I mention all this not just in support of Rob Louw, though. Cancer’s unrelenting swathe through modern society has affected the lives of people we all know — my mate Shaun lost his wife earlier in the year, and a couple of weeks ago I hosted a fundraising golf day for the foundation run by Derek Watts's daughter Kirsty, who's beaten cancer and now supports other kids trying to win the same fight. The war on cancer's very much a collective effort, and a combined assault is key to victory — which brings me to the weekend past.

Sanlam's Cancer Challenge wraps up each year with a national final at San Lameer, the network of Amsterdam-like canals masquerading as a golf course, and it's always a splendid few days of golfing indulgence. But the underlying reason for the event the raising of money and awareness for the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), and by the end of this year’s tournament, the total amount generated since the Challenge began had topped R22-million.

It's an impressive amount of money, and another great year for the Challenge; there's still a long way to go, though, and CANSA’s work is far from over. Rob may be a high profile case, and he may have made this year's San Lameer finale all the more poignant on a personal note, but he’s one of many, unfortunately, to have had to deal with the menace that is cancer. So in between updating Facebook and Twitter, wandering off to the vending machine, and trying to make the drag that is Monday speed by as quickly as possible, drop in on www.cansa.org.za — knowledge is key in beating cancer, and if you're feeling philanthropic, you can become a CANSA member at R50 a year. And do keep the blonde hooligan and his family in your thoughts: Rob Louw will beat this, and come back stronger, but like every victim of cancer around the world, support and good wishes only help the battle.

Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za

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