Despite cancer, this American performs his first ice dance gala at the age of 78: his story moves internet users

The story takes place in Santa Fe, in the State of New Mexico in the United States, where two months ago, Richard Epstein, 78, suffering from stage 4 prostate cancer, had his first ice dancing gala.

It was his wife who filmed the scene and his daughter who published it on her Twitter account, with the following message: “To all of you who think it’s too late to start something new, here is my dad, who took up ice skating and is doing a real performance here with his teacher.“

And we can actually see the duo skating, dancing, fragile balance, delicate and graceful. The feat has been viewed nearly three million times, and shared by hundreds of thousands of users, propelling Richard Epstein to the rank of the ultimate embodiment of hope.

My father is 77 years old and has stage 4 prostate cancer. He decided to learn how to ice skate a few years ago, and just did this performance with his teacher.

For anyone that thinks it’s too late to try something new… ❤️ pic.twitter.com/0SZ3FmbNGE

— Rebekah Bastian (@rebekah_bastian) December 9, 2021

“Every time I put the skate on the track, he says daily The Guardian who found him, I’m anxious, wondering if I’m going to collapse or stumble. But the good thing about skating is that there is a risk of failure beyond which I know I can reach a state of well-being, the feeling of having accomplished something, a kind of of self-confidence.” Richard Epstein is however not a philosopher but an astrophysicist.

Falling in love with physics in college, he became a research professor at Harvard, author of some 200 scientific publications, before, at age 75, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and, a few months later, leukemia.

He explains to Guardian that he has not collapsed, that the treatments for his two cancers are bearable, and that these illnesses are especially for him “a powerful reminder of our mortal condition.“To hold on, he therefore chose the instability of the ice,”because she pushes me, it’s a joy to slide, turn, get closer to the heart of the rink and feel the centrifugal force!”

Richard Epstein skates three times a week and when told about his illness, he always comes back to the dance and focuses on his next goal: to achieve a three, in other words a flip on one skate, “that would be a significant step forward for me.”