A memorial service is planned for the late sports journalist Sean Cardovillis.
The event will take place at the Consolata Shrine in Westlands on Friday September 22, 2023.
Cardovillis body was last Thursday cremated in Kariokor at a private event.
The service will serve as a poignant moment for family, friends, colleagues, and fans to remember and celebrate the life of the renowned sports broadcaster.
Cardovillis, known for his charismatic and insightful sports reporting, died on Saturday, September 9, at his home in Westlands, Nairobi.
The cause of his death is yet to be disclosed.
The Seychellois journalist, who had returned to Capital FM after 18 years, had been living alone along Rhapta Road, Westlands.
Police say preliminary findings show he died shortly after 6 am as he left for bicycle ride.
He collapsed outside his fourth floor house after closing the door and was carrying his bicycle down stairs.
Life
He was born at the War Memorial hospital in Nakuru on February 23, 1973.
He was the first child of George and Frances Cardovillis, who were then resident on their family farm Kampi ya Simba in Laikipia District.
Two years later, they were blessed with a sister to Sean, Maritza Rose.
Sean was baptized at Christ The King Cathedral in Nakuru on May 5, 1973.
The family later moved to Nairobi where Sean spent most of his later life. Sean attended Westlands Kindergarten, and for his primary education, he was at Pembroke House in Gilgil.
“The many challenges Sean faced at Pembroke made Sean realize that winning was the way to survive without his parents, number two was not acceptable,” reads part of the programme.
Sean took part in most sporting activities including rugby, athletics, swimming, cricket and squash.
Sean was made Head Boy and won the Victor Ludorum Award. One of his athletic records still stands to this day, 38 years later, the booklet says.
Later, while pursuing his secondary education at Hillcrest Secondary School, he not only excelled at the previously mentioned sporting activities, but also went for Tri Athletics, and motorcycling.
His father could not stop this young man, so he chose to support him in all his endeavour.
Sean felt insulted when a doctor advised him to stop all the activities and take up golf, the same doctor being an avid golfer.
He even asked this father not to pay the doctor the Sh700 fee he was charging for his consultation.
At United States International University, where Sean later studied, he settled on bicycling, road and mountain cycling.
He rode with champion Chris Froome of Tour De France Fame when he still lived in Kenya.
During his university days, he got his first media job on TV at KTN to as a sports news presenter.
The money earned was enough for motorcycle fuel and new bicycles.
Bicycles became his love and he excelled in this, whilst remaining focused as a spectator and keen listener to other sports including now football, which was never in his docket, he became an ardent fan of Arsenal Football Club.
Meanwhile Sean “Studied” the other sports and became an authority of sports.
Sean joined Capital FM as one of the initial presenters together with this ex-kindergarten mate Zain Verjee of CNN fame and Kimberley Leonard, now with SKY TV.
Sean got his first overseas assignment during his days at Capital FM, which included reporting on Cricket World Cup in South Africa, UK for the Rugby World Cup, African Cup of Nations in West Africa, Olympic games in Sydney etc. It was during this time that the now famous moniker “Voice of Sport” was coined. Sean became a household name in Kenya, his Media shy father also earned the name “Seans Father”!! (BABA SEAN)
When Sean’s mother moved to the Seychelles, Sean landed a job with Paradise FM, there onwards and seven years later, Seychelles became too small for him, the economy was getting better in Kenya so Sean moved back home.
Not too long after returning in Kenya, he secured a sports presenter role on Nation FM and Nation TV, the Voice of Sport was reborn.
Come COVID, Sean left Nation and now he was solo, he was already a brand name that needed a jumpstart, new ideas came to mind.
He made good use of this period to learn the freshest media tactics. He started his podcast, Motorsport 411, with his good friend Lee Kanyottu at Big City Studio. Coming back to Capital was refreshing to his fans and he had other plans that he will never see, to build a sports reporting hub, little did he know the end was near.
Health
In February 2022, Sean was hospitalized for three weeks at the Aga Khan Hospital, when one of his lungs collapsed with severe pneumonia.
Sean managed to fight back and was enjoying good health including cycling 50 to 80 kilometers on days, he didn’t like the idea of remaining on medication for the rest of his life but this was to be, so he needed his doctors.
He was traveling frequently to his family home in Nanyuki, and went on assignments to Vipingo, Naivasha, Machakos.
He was enjoying a normal life, cutting down on socializing and living a clean healthy life.
On September 8 he went to Capital FM on a bicycle as usual and returned at 6pm to prepare for the evening to watch the Rugby World Cup due to kick off in Paris. Sean was to attend this event later in the month courtesy of Emirates Airlines to do live reporting from Paris.
This was to be Sean’s final day, he collapsed on the stairs leading to his flat.
He was found the next morning, next to his road bicycle about 14 hours later.
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