ON THE TREATMENT TABLE A weekend to remember as stars join fundraiser

AVID readers of this blog will know that, sadly, one of our local heroes, former Bristol Rovers and Ipswich Town striker Marcus Stewart has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. It’s the same terrible illness that has afflicted sporting legends Rob Burrow and Doddie Weir recently.

It’s a cruel and life limiting disease that doesn’t discriminate and has affected so many individuals and their families all over the world. One day, there will be a cure for MND, but it will take money, effort and time to push towards the growing level of research.

Most of us are not research scientists so the best we can hope to do is offer to raise money for deserving charities and support our friends and fellow humans who suffer. By raising money we can shorten the time to when we will see a cure, so I firmly believe that it’s in all of our interests to work together to defeat MND. To this end, Marcus’s friends and family got together to put on a fantastic show to raise money and awareness for the cause.

Two charities, the Darby Rimmer Foundation and MNDA, organised an amazing weekend, kicking off with a golf day at Mendip Spring and a huge celebrity dinner on the Friday. That was followed by a celebrity football match at a packed Memorial Stadium on the Saturday. As you can imagine the weekend was support by a host of celebrities ready to support

Marcus, his wife Louise and their lovely family.

Allow me to namedrop just a few… Paul Scholes, Harry Redknapp, England Lioness Jill Scott, Dean Saunders, Big Ron Atkinson, Keith Gillespie, Jeff Whitley, Ryan Thomas from Coronation Street, Dean Edwards (Bristol’s top TV chef!) and Sky Sports presenter Michelle Owen.

The All Stars, managed by former Rovers boss Darrell Clarke took on the South West Legends who, led by another ex-Gas manager Paul Tisdale, included former local stars such as Chris Lines, Lee Mansell, Lee Brown, Oli Clarke and even a friend from south of the river – Scott Murray.

The team from Cleve Chiropractic were asked to supply the medical support to both sides and I would like to thank the staff who came to lend a helping hand.

We had a full set-up of physio, chiro and sports therapy for both teams and I can tell you that it was super fun to work with the likes of Scholes and Saunders and listen to the banter of Harry Redknapp as he interacted with the players, celebrities and fans alike. A day that none of us will ever forget.

I have thought about whether or not to discuss with you the table that Cleve Chiro bought to support the celebrity auction and dinner on the Friday evening, as it was lively and very entertaining as I’m sure you can imagine. However, as I invited Gary Brindle, the amazing publisher of the Downend Voice, his wife Natalie and stepson Jay, I thought it would be fun!

The evening was hosted by Bristol rugby legend and British Lion Mark Regan, who was sporting a new manly beard! He took to calling me Alan Carr all evening, which was a new one on me but I have learnt to roll with these things…

We got the night off to a good start with a game of head and and tails. After a few interesting coin tosses none other than our very own Catherine Quinn won the final prize, a signed 2019 World Cup cricket final man-of-thematch Ben Stokes plaque.

Supported, or rather egged on, by Gary and Mr Regan, I was almost coaxed into buying a signed David Beckham shirt but, with the likes of Paul Scholes in the room, that would have been a tough ask. Also, I actually had my eye on a portrait painting of Marcus by world famous artist John Donaldson, from Bristol.

Finally, after several bottles of wine and some great fun, came the biggest auction ‘lot’… the painting! The bidding was fierce but thankfully the big wig footballers in the room let us normal folk play.

I would like to be able to give you more details of how the auction went but, truly, I can’t quite remember… the excitement must have gotten the better of me. However, the next day when I woke up, with the painting next to me, I smiled as I realised I had won.

Then I tried to remember how much it was… I couldn’t but I do know that every penny has gone to the best cause I can think of. It will go up in the clinic and I will love it forever.