Steadman story is inspiration to us all

FLOYD Steadman’s story is one of the most uplifting and moving you will find in any sport, as those who recently attended the launch of his book,

A Week One Summer, at the East India Club in the heart of London’s West End soon discovered.

The plush surroundings were a far cry from Steadman’s start in life.

It tells of how, as the son of Jamaican immigrants, he ran away

from home to escape his abusive father at the age of ten, and roamed the streets of north London alone for a

week – and then a few more weeks – in the summer of 1969.

From sleeping in a garden shed, and in an enclosed cabin at the top of a slide in a playground, the young survivor earned a few shillings helping a milkman with his round, and just about managed to keep hunger at bay before eventually being taken into care.

How Steadman went on to play 469 games for Saracens at scrumhalf, before captaining the club to promotion to the old first division in 1989, took his Alevels, and went on to become an inspirational teacher and headmaster – including encouraging a young Maro Itoje to take up rugby – is the stuff of legend.

It is an account of triumph over adversity of every sort, including racism, and is told with great honesty.

It is a tribute to Steadman’s indomitable character and determination, and as his late wife, Denise, said to him before giving the autobiography its title, it is a story that needs to be told.

A Week One Summer deserves the widest possible audience.

A Week One Summer is available from Amazon Books. Publisher: Sarsen Press. Hardcover £11.99