As I touched upon in the last blog,a number of people had got in touch with us via twitter & Facebook from all over the world,offering to take the flag with them, not only to football matches,but other sporting events, including a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Oscar's story gained massive support out there as he was taken to Philadelphia in October for treatment,but suffered a setback which saw him in ICU for 3 weeks. The people of Philadelphia rallied round & have continued fundraising ever since,so it would be great to get it out there in the future,but, unfortunately, due to the timing of their season ending,it wasn't possible straight away.
Closer to home, a good friend of all of ours, Andy "Jock" Fairweather, was about to embark on a trip of his own for his dream cup tie. Jock's fae Arbroath & is a big Celtic fan, so when Arbroath scored a last-minute free kick at Parkhead to earn themselves a replay at their place, Jock travelled up from St Albans to see the game he's been dreaming off for years. We were still on the continent when he was in touch, asking to take it with him, but it went down to St Albans with Jamie & Dean & headed North of the border with Jock. This was a big part of it for us, as the flag is only green & white because of Oscar's allegiance to Celtic & the fact that the club & It's fans have been so supportive of the Appeal.
We'd only half-discussed what would happen with the flag once we returned. After the UTV mention, it escalated for a night,& we talked about auctioning the flag to raise a couple more pounds for the Appeal, but when we set up the JustGiving page,we undertook a commitment to raise as much money as possible for the Oscar Knox Appeal. We weren't yet finished with the flag,& Jock's journey to Arbroath inspired us to come up with something else upon our return.
9 games in 9 days soon became 10 in 12 days,thanks to Jock,&, although we didn't have the free time (or the money) to continue at that rate,we decided to take people up on their offers & start distributing the flag around various grounds. Our new target was to get the flag on TV as often as possible, at the best spot possible, at the biggest games possible. 50 games by the end of the season, including every Premier League ground was mooted but alas,seems to be proving to be too ambitious.
We adopted a multi-pronged approach as to what would be the next step.
1) "Take each game as they come"
One of the greatest cliche's in football has become our mantra. After being frustrated at no fewer than 3 televised games over the Christmas period, we decided we would continue to get the flag televised at as many football grounds as possible, but looking at it at the beginning of each week & working out a different strategy for each game.
Whilst the flag pricked people's interest at every ground of the tour, our biggest successes were unquestionably at Newcastle & Everton, simply because you could stand & talk to people about it at English grounds & most of them could see the common goal amongst football fans,& people in general. Oscar's situation could happen to anyone with kids & the tremendous fight & character that he's shown should never be allowed to be let down simply by money. Rather than say we will fly the flag at 'x amount of games, we will just aim for as many as possible & will be using Sky games & Match of the Day for one big game of 'spot the flag'
2) To use the story of the 7ma7ches7coun7ries7days tour to further promote the Oscar Knox Appeal. We've been appearing in local media, & once everything's moving again, will be using a Twitter & Facebook account to gather a bit more momentum. This blog will be circulated around football forums/blog sites to help get the message out more & I was approached to write a book about our exploits. Those of you who've been following this blog regularly will be able to attest to the fact that I'm hardly the best writer,& I have no real idea as to how to write a book or the ins & outs of publishing, but if someone believes that it will even raise a further £100 for the Oscar Knox Appeal,then it's something that I have to do.
3) We have extended our JustGiving deadline until the end of the year, so fundraising is now a massive part of what we're doing. We are talking with various venues about setting up a base for the Oscar Knox Appeal, in Manchester & will use it to host fundraising events,hopefully culminating with a gala event at the end of the season,with various items being auctioned off, possibly including the flag itself, if it has achieved it's goal. Our target was initially an ambitious £1500 but with events like this we aim to smash through that barrier & then, the sky's the limit.
4) we are looking into the possibility of one last epic football-related journey for the flag, but it's difficult to commit to anything concrete just yet, so soon after the 7 countries tour. These things take a lot of planning & a lot of money,but if we can come up with one that's feasible before May, we will do so
Since those 10 games in 12 days,the flag has been on to a few games, including Wigan v Arsenal, with me. I have to mention this game in particular because of one head steward in particular. Unfortunately, I haven't got his name but he went above & beyond to ensure the flag was spotted on Sky & MOTD.
Upon arrival, there was nowhere to hang the flag that didn't obstruct advertising hoardings & I was also sat in the stand behind the cameras. Having explained to this particular steward what the flag was about, he had me marched across to the far corner to have the flag displayed across some empty seats by their own 'Latics' advertising banner. Unfortunately,as has happened so often, the game was a bit of a stinker & didn't lead to much action in front of the flag,or a lot of highlights on MOTD. Huge thanks to Wigan for all of their help though, for that & also for their help in getting a ticket for a game that was only on sale to Wigan fans with a purchase history. Their fans were also brilliant in sending their support to Oscar & all involved with his ongoing battle.
The flag has been taken by others to 3 games since that Wigan game & unfortunately has been met with the same result I encountered at Man City at each one. It's extremely difficult to do this alone & there are a lot of factors that need to be considered, such as where you sit in relation to the cameras, or where you can easily hang it without obstructing advertising boards,etc. We have been contacting each club in advance to make them aware of what we're doing & let's just say some have been more responsive than others, without naming names. Some have been back in contact,asking for another crack at it & we will try again but our aim is to gather some momentum, so I have targeted doing at least half of the Premiership grounds myself, as, after 11 goes at this (I did in fact bring it back to Goodison for the televised visit of Chelsea,also), I feel like I know where the main obstacles lie. Little bit of control freak behaviour on my part there, but I really want to kick on with this, so it will be doing the rounds
For anyone who hasn't read this blog before, we took a flag to 7 football games in 7 days in 7 different countries, to raise awareness,& money, for the Oscar Knox Appeal. Oscar is a young boy from Northern Ireland who has severe Neuroblastoma & desperately needs money to help him,& other children with this disease. Please read oscar's blog here
http://oscarknox.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1
You can donate to our JustGiving page here
https://www.justgiving.com/7ma7ches7coun7ries7days/
Follow us on Twitter here
https://twitter.com/oscarsflag
We are funding this entire project ourselves & 100% of what you donate will go to Oscar's Appeal
Although we were initially hesitant to be raising money whilst having a glorified holiday &/or watching football, so many good people have come forward to us, that we can't refuse it
Thanks for your support
Team Oscar
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