Ipswich Town legend Marcus Stewart has praised the club for helping to raise money for the fight against Motor Neurone Disease through their record-breaking new kits.
Town are donating £2 from every home shirt sold in July to the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation, a charity Stewart is working with after he was diagnosed with the disease last year.
And, with record sales of the new kits, more than £11,000 has been raised for the foundation already.
"I don’t think the club have sold that many new kits on the first day ever,” said Stewart, who helped launch the new strips.
"Ipswich have been great. We haven’t approached them about getting these things to happen, it is them who have come up with the ideas.
"They have been very proactive in helping out the charity in a big way and it all creates awareness as well."
MND is a degenerative condition which affects the brain and nervous system. It is a life-shortening disease and there is no cure. Although it will progress, symptoms can be managed to achieve the best possible quality of life.
Currently head of player development at National League South club Yeovil, Stewart, supported by his wife Louise, hopes to continue to front campaigns for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation while he is able.
The foundation was launched by former professional footballer Stephen Darby and armed forces veteran Chris Rimmer, who were both diagnosed with the disease. Rimmer died aged 39 in April last year.
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Former Leeds Rhinos rugby league player Rob Burrow is living with the condition after his diagnosis in 2019.
Burrow’s former team-mate Kevin Sinfield is another who has helped improve awareness of MND and raised millions of pounds for charity through his endurance efforts.
"I am lucky. At the moment, I still have got my voice, still have got my mobility," said Stewart, who scored 19 goals as Town finished fifth in the Premier League in the 2000/01 season.
"I have a little bit of a profile, not as big as Kev and Rob, but I am there to be the voice of the people who haven’t got a profile, who haven’t got mobility and a voice because of the disease.
"As long as I am well and good – I am still exercising and able to work – I am going to do my best to get out there and be a voice for the other people while I can, like Kev and a lot of people are doing for MND, the silent ones who are doing their bit in their own time."
Stewart, 50, has lost grip in his left hand since being diagnosed and has a weak arm, but says he has a positive outlook.
"The initial shock, of course, was quite hard to take for a lot of people, but we are all trying to get on with life and just living in the moment," he explained.
"The past two or three months, everything has settled down a bit and been pretty much normal now for most of the family really. We are a pretty positive group of people."
- The Stewart family are raising funds for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation. For more information, visit justgiving.com/team/teamstewart254
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