Local Boy meets Middlesbrough Hero’s

Fourteen-year-old Callum Lucas from Havant has had his wish of meeting the Middlesbrough FC squad granted by the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Callum who suffers from a rare gastrointestinal disease called eosinophilic entrocolitis (EGID), has been ill from birth and has spent his life in and out of hospital for upsetting and painful treatments. Despite this he has soldiered though in the attempt to live a normal life.

A life long Boro fan, Callum remembers first being taken to a game at the age of six by his father, a serving solider. Unfortunately it was not a ‘dream’ start for Callum as they narrowly lost to Wigan Athletic 3-2. However this defeat didn’t put him off and he followed in his father’s footsteps of supporting his home-town club.

Callum’s mother, Michelle got in touch with the Starlight Children’s Foundation who then acted quickly in contacting the North East football club and getting it set up.

Callum, along with his parents Michelle and Steven, elder brother Joshua, aged 16 and younger sister Alexandra-Grace, aged 12 were invited up to Middlesbrough’s training facility at Rockliffe Park where Callum and his family were greeted by the clubs press officer Graham Bell, who took them down to where the players were training, this surprised Callum as to start off with the players were playing handball before splitting up into smaller groups to as they practised passing, defending and their first touches, Callum also got himself involved by passing the ball back to one of the players during training.

After the players had finished training they made their way over to Callum and his family to greet them. After they had met the players, 7 of them, including Callum’s favourite George Friend posed for a photo with Callum and his Brother Joshua, afterwards Callum had this to say “It was amazing especially meeting Jonathan Woodgate seeing as he played in the first game I went to.”

But Callum’s fun wasn’t over yet as Middlesbrough FC invited him to the match against Bolton the following day, putting Callum and his family up in one of the top boxes to watch the match from. This proved a fun and exciting day for Callum and his family as he was invited down to pitch side along with his brother and dad to watch the teams warm up, where he had photos taken with several of the players and watched the teams walk out before kick-off. When asked about the experience Callum had this to say, “It was brilliant I love football and I love Middlesbrough so getting to stand there at the riverside was something special.”

Luckily for Callum the game proved exciting with Middlesbrough dominant throughout the majority of the match eventually coming out 1-0 winners after a 81st minute penalty on a day that saw the début of the first foreign manager in the clubs illustrious history, Aitor Karanka. The day didn’t end at the full-time whistle for Callum though as he was able to get a shirt signed by new manger Aitor Karanka and man of the match Ben Gibson, who paid the family a special visit in their box after the match.

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