We spoke to Rich about his veterans’ football team, after he chose to help us raise awareness of our charity by donning our logo on the back of their team shirts.
“I am the joint founder of Weston North End FC with a close friend, Adam Clark. We set the team up from scratch from members of a local weekly 7-a-side football night aimed at keeping ‘dads’ (i.e. old blokes) playing football. Our first 11-a-side game was a one-off match against a local stillbirth and neonatal death charity. Everyone really enjoyed it but scoffed at the suggestion we could make it a permanent thing. We love a challenge though, and after securing coaching and first aid qualifications, sponsorships, kits, grounds etc., we became FA affiliated and joined the Somerset FA Legends League in 2021. This is now our fourth season playing, and the second with CHECT as our shoulder sponsor.
CHECT being represented on our shirts is a huge deal. I spent a lot of my life hiding from my story and feeling ashamed of being (or at least feeling) different. First becoming aware of CHECT, and then becoming involved as an ambassador, has played a big part in my recovery. The whole team knows my story now – in the past I would never have shared this so openly and proudly.
The CHECT logo on our team shirt is my badge of honour and a great way to raise awareness of Rb and the amazing charity work that goes on around it. The team is really supportive of the charity sponsor and all contributed additional funds to cover the extra printing costs for the shirts. They know it is important to me, and by extension it is now also important to them. CHECT is now part of the identity of Weston North End FC.
I had an enucleation at two years old. It was the classic ‘white glow’ in a photograph that triggered my aunt to encourage my parents to get it checked. My GP had one look inside my left eye and knew. He described it as a ‘once-in-a-career’ diagnosis. Becoming a parent in 2013 gave me new insight into how traumatic the experience must have been for my own parents. My son, Dexter, was obviously tested as a baby for a genetic mutation of the Rb gene, but thankfully everything was normal. He’s now a thriving 12-year-old who is frustratingly better at football than me!
It has taken a lot of work, but I’m finally reaching a place of acceptance, self-love, resilience and humour around my Rb journey. Being open about it has been absolutely critical to achieving this, and my only regret is that I didn’t feel able to do this much earlier. Having had Rb has had very little impact on me playing football as far as I can tell. I’m no Lionel Messi, but I’m a decent grassroots player and until recently was top scorer for the team over three seasons. It’s definitely handy to blame having one eye when I misplace a pass or miss an easy goalscoring chance though!
But seriously, one of the main things I would hope to achieve by sharing this story is to reassure parents of Rb kids (and Rb kids themselves!) that involvement in conventional sport and all the normality associated with it is still absolutely possible.
Our match fixtures are posted on our Facebook page for anyone who is keen to support us!”