Coming together for cause
Many local football clubs and people have come together to donate to the Nathan ‘Truesy’ Trueman £50,000 Challenge. Trueman, whose dad Will lives in Keynsham, is captain of Portishead Town after youth spells at Bristol Rovers and Forest Green and was living life as normal until September 2020 when he felt a lump under his right arm.
After weeks of uncertainty, Nathan had been diagnosed with a rare, large and incredibly aggressive grade 4 tumour growing within the tissue of his right shoulder - a synovial sarcoma - which would require intensive chemotherapy followed by surgery and radiotherapy.
Over the coming weeks and months, Nathan will undergo intensive intravenous chemotherapy which involves him being hooked up to the life-saving drugs he needs for up to three days at a time in the hope the tumour will reduce enough to be allow a surgeon to remove it. That will then be followed by a final blast of radiotherapy to ensure the cancer is gone.
With no visitors to hospitals and the family having to shield during the national lockdown, Nathan’s employers have agreed to pay his salary for three months before he will then have no income to meet his monthly outgoings. As well as raising money for Nathan, his family have set a target of £50,000 to also donate funds to both Sarcoma UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Nathan’s family, friends, colleagues and teammates will also be taking on various challenges to help the cause.
So far, over 1,000 have donated to the cause which currently stands at over £26,000.
For more information, visit gofundme.com/f/the-nathantruesy-truman-20000-challenges.
MALCOLM Trainer has been nominated as one of the Western League’s Unsung Heroes.
The Toolstation Western League is using the current lockdown to celebrate the contribution made by the game’s unsung heroes, without whom clubs wouldn’t survive.
The Western League hope that by celebrating the contribution made by clubs’ unsung heroes, fans can celebrate what’s best about the game of football, at a time when so much publicity is focussed on the negative impact the Coronavirus pandemic is having on society.
Trainer was nominated by Keynsham and in a social media post said: “Malcolm Trainer is a tru unsung hero at Keynsham Town and can be seen on match days in the gatehouse taking entrance fees, welcoming old and new and just being that vital cog in a great club he helped build.
“Malcolm is what every club needs. He is a true legend something all clubs desire to have.”
The league has contacted all clubs asking for nominations and will be celebrating unsung heroes across their media channels, including on social media, the league website toolstationleague. com and on the weekly Toolstation Western League Podcast, which continues whilst football is suspended.
To send in your unsung heroes, email ian.nockolds@toolstationleague.com or james.healey@toolstationleague.