Luke Webster, 7, to feature on Aston Villa Christmas card
By: Chris | December 9th, 2008When Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner signs and seals his official Villa Christmas cards this December, he’ll be delivering the face of seven-year-old Luke Webster to the offices of all the club’s assorted stakeholders.
Luke suffers from alternating hemiplegia of the child (AHC), an extremely debilitating paralysing condition. Sadly, Luke’s disease is incurable, and his family is helped in caring for him by Acorns Childrens Hospice, a local charity with a long-running partnership with Aston Villa Football Club.
This season Acorns is featured on Villa’s strip in place of a paying sponsor, affording it immeasurable publicity and – in my case at least – a staggering amount of loyalty from a bunch of football fans who now feel part of the relationship their club has built with a local cause.
It is not, as an Acorns spokesperson said earlier in the season, a miracle. It’s just an amazing act of goodwill from the best football club owner on earth.
And with Christmas fast approaching, the club has, according to the Evening Mail in a breath-takingly badly punctuated piece, selected Loretta Brennan’s photograph of Luke with Villa captain Martin Laursen – a man who has clearly been touched by Luke’s bravery and the work of Acorns generally – for its 2008 Christmas card.
Laursen’s close bond with young Luke and Villa’s work with Acorns make me so outrageously proud of the club that I simply cannot put it into words – so I’m not even going to try.
Amazing. Again.
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Comments
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Once again, Villa provide the Premiership with a soul.
Posted from
United Kingdom
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This is fantastic. I’d love to see other clubs using their following and exposure to raise awareness of charity the way Villa has. All of Villa’s supporters should be exceedingly proud of their club.
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United States -
As a football fan alone I’m proud of Villa. The club, through and through is just a classy outfit. Lerner seems like a genuine gent aswell too. Villa fans should be incredibly proud.
Posted from
United States
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