AFC Rushden & Diamonds are pleased to announce that they will be helping to promote awareness of Wilson’s Disease by carrying a Wilson’s Disease Support Group logo on their shorts during the 2016/17 campaign.
Wilson’s Disease is a rare genetic disorder that is fatal unless detected and treated before serious illness develops from copper poisoning. Wilson’s Disease affects about one in thirty thousand people worldwide. More details on this disorder are here.
The focus on this disease has been as a result of one of the AFC Rushden & Diamonds Community Team Players undergoing treatment for the disease. Sam Fitzgerald had played almost 20 games for the Diamonds U14 side when he first began showing symptoms of the disease, although the formal diagnosis only came later, when he was tested for the disease. The illness has left him disabled and confined to a wheelchair.
It is accepted that an early diagnosis of the disease is vital – and thus raising awareness of the disease can only help improve the chances that the symptoms are recognised at the first possible opportunity, and that the appropriate tests are carried out.
The AFC Rushden & Diamonds Community section will be focussing on helping raise awareness of the disease during the forthcoming two seasons, and they will also be wearing the logo on their kit, as well as staging a number of fundraising events – the first of these is the “Man in the Mirror” event on Friday 16th September – details here. They will have two aims within these next two seasons, firstly to raise £500 per season to be donated to the Wilson’s Support Group, helping them continue to offer support to those with the illness and their families, and secondly to increase the number of people who are aware of the signs and symptoms of this rare condition. There is a fundraising page set up at https://www.goldengiving.com/fundraising/wilsonsdiseasedonations.
Community Volunteer Mark Cullen has written an insight into Sam’s time with the U14 Cosmos side, and his subsequent battle with the disease – you can read Mark’s personal insight here.
If anybody would like to make a contribution to the fundraising campaign that the AFC Rushden & Diamonds Community Section are running, please visit this link.
