Continuing the Fight
Tom Stevenson & Stiliyan Petrov combine to continue their campaign to raise awareness of two very personal causes.
Words and pictures ©ThreeFiveThree Photography
The Battle Fund XI v The Stiliyan Petrov Foundation XI
Sunday 12th July 2015
Boldmere St Michaels Football Club | Trevor Brown Memorial Ground
On Sunday 12th July 2015, a local amateur footballer and a former professional footballer continued their joint awareness and fund raising campaigns in a charity football match at Boldmere St Michaels FC’s Trevor Brown Memorial Ground near Sutton Coldfield.
Around 18 months ago, Tom Stevenson, club captain of Boldmere St Michaels of the Midland Football League, was given some devastating news when he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease - a condition with no known cure.
Rather than sit back and accept defeat, Tom’s outlook and attitude has been an inspiration to many and a number of his friends, team mates and family have arranged fundraising events to generate fund for Tom’s ‘Battle Fund’ where the money raised will be used in anyway it can to support Tom and his young family during his fight to overcome this truly terrible disease.
When the ALS ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ craze surfaced last year via social media, it certainly raised the profile of the challenge that sufferers like Tom face but it is important to keep the fight going and events through the year will help to raise as much money as possible as well as keep the disease in the public eye.
Tom is a massively popular figure around the club and former Celtic and Aston Villa player Stiliyan Petrov has been a great friend to him and has helped with the fundraising by appearing in previous charity matches at Boldmere as well as using the ground to host matches to raise money for his foundation which he created in September 2013 during his successful battle with acute leukaemia.
Stan’s story has a happy ending as his leukaemia is now in remission but he has vowed that his foundation will aim to provide a support infrastructure to help families be near to their loved ones when under going treatment, something he believes played a massive part in him getting through his ordeal.
On this particular day Stan was joined by his brother Ivan, Bulgarian team-mate Martin Petrov and a host of names from Villa teams of old such as Gordon Cowans, Lee Hendrie and Darren Byfield to face a team of semi-pro’s managed by Tom himself and Morton Titterton.
Money was raised through local companies being invited to sponsor players and a number of squad places were auctioned off to give winning bidders the chance to play with some famous names in the ‘Petrov XI’ and the four team members who paid £650 each to take their place were Malcolm Dwyer, James Myatt, Nick Winder and Matt Hill.
The management roles for Stan’s team were also part of the auction in the weeks leading up to the game with Paul Byrne and Daniel Gibbons taking charge of the ex-pro’s after successfully offering £1000 between them.
The result was a resounding 8–4 victory for Tom’s ‘Battle Fund XI’ and although the main aim of the day was to raise awareness of two important causes, the competitive spirit was still on show once the players crossed that white line!
While Tom faces a daily fight with this disease, we can all take inspiration from his positive attitude and anything that can be done to help him, his wife Lian and daughter Orla you know will be truly appreciated by them all - and you know Tom will not be sitting at home complaining about his situation, more likely he will be in the gym, battling on and taking this disease by the scruff of the neck.
Please click on the links at the top of the page to learn more about what you can do to support upcoming events - or even to suggest an idea to help - and when using Twitter, use the hashtag #strong4stevo to offer a message of support.
For more information about Motor Neurone Disease or how you can get involved then please visit their website or contact The Battle Fund.
For a full gallery of images from the day, please click here.
All images ©ThreeFiveThree Photography
