As a club, we’ve recently been made aware of some amazing work that’s been done by our Cyclones and Harriers coaches. They’ve gone above and beyond with the help and support they’ve given to the parents of some of the players within their teams.

Here are the words of those parents:

“My name is Liz and I have my son and two stepsons in Kingswood United teams. These are the Cyclones and the Harriers. My partner Darren recently suffered a spinal cord injury whilst at his football team’s training session. This has been a tough time and a journey of rehab ahead for him. At the time of the injury, my first thought was to pull the boys out of football permanently. It suddenly felt like football was a bit of a sore subject for all of us and especially during the weeks when we didn’t know if Darren would walk again.

“I was really mindful about the fact the boys knew that what happened to Darren was at football and was concerned that it would make them not want to play out of fear of being injured themselves. Apart from the boys missing that first weekend after Darren’s accident, we’ve had amazing support from the boys coaches with maintaining them at training and matches. It’s not given a gap to allow any time for them to stew about that.

“As much as I was hating on football whilst spending days at the hospital with Darren, it’s proved to be a huge constant in the boys’ lives whilst everything else has been so unsettled for them. That wouldn’t have been possible for us to give them without the help of the coaches and the families in the team. I wouldn’t have been able to get any of the boys to football had it not have been for the support I received from the coaches.

“The care and support Simon and Mike and their coaching teams have shown us has blown us away. They’ve been an extended family to us and the boys when we needed it by keeping the boys smiling, picking them up and dropping them home from training and matches, carrying out individual collections and video messages/cards for Darren. There have also been consistent check ins on how Darren, me and the kids are doing.

“I would also like to mention Alec who's the coach for the Pearls. Although Alec’s connection to Darren is as his boss, he’s also shown Darren and the family nothing but care and support in this difficult time. This is a representation of the good people Kingswood have on their coaching teams.

“All we can offer back is the biggest thank you and ask that these coaches are recognised for what they’ve done for us and the boys. They’ve been such a fantastic representation for Kingswood and their own teams. Thank you to all of you for helping with our boys and so much more. Although it’s only a thank you, I hope it goes some way to show our appreciation.”

From all within the club, we wish Darren a speedy recovery and hope football will remain a positive experience for the family to enjoy.