Football is such big business now,that its had its very soul stripped away. It's not fun like it used to be, because people have become so obsessed in it,living it 24/7.
In short, there's so much razzmatazz surrounding it, so much hype, that it loses whats at the very soul of it.
On Monday, April 22, I was sat about 500 yards from OT, half-watching Man Utd play Aston Villa.
(On TV, not using binoculars)
United needed to win to clinch the league title & Van Persie scored after a few seconds to put them in front,but I carried on on my laptop, planning things for our next fundraiser, whilst, ironically, also trying to arrange for Oscar's flag to be at United's next home game v Swansea,when my phone rang. A mate of mine from back home asked if I'd heard the news about Oscar.
He'd got the all-clear.
He'd had the all-clear on a few of his test results over the previous weeks,but this was the final test that his family were waiting on. He'd done it, he'd beaten cancer. I've never met Oscar, but having followed his story for so long & having since met some of his family, this news was massive for me. I spoke to Shaun straight away & it was all just such a buzz. However, then it dawned on me, that I'd been so engrossed in all this side of it,that I hadn't even heard the news that was announced 3 hours previous.
We chose to get involved in all of this. We had a stupid idea & decided to try & use our story to help raise awareness for the Oscar Knox appeal. We developed that idea further into other things that would raise money for the Oscar Knox Appeal. This led to us becoming obsessed in quantifying what we were doing. How many people were we getting the word out to? How much money are we raising?What else could we do to promote it further?
It was Shaun who suggested getting the flag signed by famous faces throughout his cycle & auctioning it, which then upped the pressure of making it as famous as possible, in order to raise as much money as possible for the Appeal. In all honesty, it all became work & as much fun as the challenge aspects were at their respective times, everything else has been planning,fundraising,meetings, broken promises, more planning,& so on. This all led to us becoming so focused on The Oscar Knox Appeal that we'd lost sight of what was at the heart of that.
Oscar Knox.
Wee Oscar as he's known back home, has been through things in his 4 years that, hopefully, the majority of us never have, or never will go through.
Thousands of people have been campaigning & fundraising in his name. What myself, Shaun & the other people who've helped us throughout this last 6 months have done has been a drop in the ocean,amidst all of these people who've been a part of 'Team Oscar'. These people chose to get involved,not out of pity, but because they saw a family &, in particular, a child, who had been dealt a terrible card in life & rather than throw their hands up & accept defeat, chose to fight on.
Myself & Shaun can vouch for the countless frustrations we've faced doing this. Fundraising is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Much more difficult than I ever imagined.
However, we never had it on anywhere near the scale they did,all the while having a sick child to care for at the same time, as well as his younger sister to look after, pay the bills....
The more I think about it, I don't know how they manage it, yet they continue to carry on having a laugh, taking the kids to the beach, living as close to a normal life as they possibly could, all the while fighting this. A lot of people say they had no choice, but I know a lot of people would've handled it differently.
I hate describing a person as inspirational, it sounds so corny, but the truth is, Oscar hasn't been given the credit he deserves. Nor have his incredible family. They brought together people from both sides of the community in Northern Ireland to support his fight.
(In fact,up until 8 months ago, I probably wouldn't even have been comfortable using the term 'Northern Ireland').
I'm a lot prouder of where I come from nowadays than I ever was.
Never mind the politics, thousands of people came together to help out one of their own, regardless of religion,politics,etc.
And then, when all hope looked gone, he pulled himself back from the brink, despite the massive struggles he faced in Philadelphia. He did that. A 4 year old boy
If that's not inspirational, I don't know what is.
We never set out to get involved with the Oscar Knox Appeal, but we decided that it may be possible to use the world's most popular sport to help raise awareness for a little boy who needed help. We'll never know how successful our campaign has been,as it began life solely with the aim of raising awareness for the appeal,before adding fundraising to it at a later date, but we've certainly given it our best shot in terms of raising money.The Oscar Knox Appeal has raised over £650,000 to date, but £250,000 of that was used to begin his treatment in that ill-fated Philadelphia trip, & they need £500,000 ring-fenced in case of a relapse. If after 5 years, that money hasn't been needed (God willing), it will be released to the Neuroblastoma Alliance to help other children like Oscar,& fund research into this horrible disease.
Our final fundraising event takes place on Friday 24th May at Chorlton Irish club,so it allows us to gather all the money we've raised to announce our 'final score' on May 25th (not a coincidence that it's the last big game of the football season that same night, the champions league final) but this doesn't mean that we're finishing fundraising for The Oscar Knox Appeal, or won't be helping out any of the other countless great causes that we've met along the way. It just means that our 'Oscar's Flag' campaign will conclude with the football season.
Because of all of the football connections throughout our campaign, I found the serendipity of sitting watching Manchester United win the league, whilst sitting in the shadow of Old Trafford, as Wee Oscar had the best result of all, absolutely incredible. I'm an Evertonian, & have never experienced success in my match-going life, but I felt like I'd seen us win the league that day.The laptop went away & the champagne came out in our house, as I sat back & watched Wayne Rooney play a perfect pass for Robin Van Persie to unleash a pure beaut of a volley & score one of the best goals you'll ever see in your life. Straight away, I was thinking back to Belfast,when I was a kid & how we'd all be out in the street trying to replicate that for hours every day until someone got it & we'd all be going mental when we did
Van Persie went on to complete his hat trick, in the title clinching game. Again, the sort of thing that you dreamed about as a kid,& I was watching football romantically again. Remembering why I fell in love with it in the first place.
I mentioned to Shaun on the phone that we would have a lot more work to do on the fundraiser now, as we would have to speak to the Neuroblastoma Alliance & change everything we'd done in the way of promoting our event, starting tickets & posters etc from scratch, as well as changing the whole tone of the night. Neither of us cared.
It was no longer about effort, money, who'd let us down, etc. The only reason we got involved in the first place was to help Oscar get better. Who cares who contributes what or who says they're going to do this & that? Strip away everything else & all you're left with is the fact that one wee boy has faced all sorts of incredibly difficult challenges & is now looking forward to starting school in September, right on schedule. Being able to enjoy other kids' company & just do what kids do. Maybe even have a crack at a Van Persie volley in the playground in a few years time
That's all this has ever been about
Well done, Oscar
Truly inspirational
Truly fearless
