News

The Rangers Charity Foundation has donated £1,000 to an inspirational Rangers fan fundraising for his Glasgow based powerchair football club.

Eddie Kirkwood has been featured in the media over the past week after being recognised by ITV News’ Inspiring Britain series.

The feature showed that 28 year-old Eddie has Cerebral Palsy, leaving him wheelchair-bound, but it hasn’t prevented him from living life to the maximum.

Determined to be as active as possible, Eddie spends up to eight hours a day volunteering as a litter picker in Glasgow and on top of that, he helped to found the Glasgow Gladiators Powerchair Football Club.

The Club is the only one of its kind in the city, with Eddie being the team captain, goalkeeper and one of its key fundraisers.

Far from an inexpensive sport, each specialist chair costs in the region of £5,000, but after getting a chair for himself, Eddie is now determined to help others by fundraising to buy more and will take part in a sponsored Santa Dash on Sunday, December 10.

Kenny Miller visited Eddie as part of the ITV News feature and since then Rangers fans have been donating to his online fundraising page.

The total now stands at just over £3,000 after the Rangers Charity Foundation donated £1,000.

Connal Cochrane, Rangers Charity Foundation Director, said: “Eddie is a familiar face to the Foundation having previously been a guest of ours at the Rangers training ground in May where he met the entire first team squad as part of our Dream Day initiative.

“The values Eddie shows in the way he takes pride in his community and wants to make a difference for others are an inspiration to us all and we wanted to show him how much we appreciate him by making a donation of £1,000.

 “It is wonderful to see how Rangers fans have reacted by donating to Eddie’s fundraising following the ITV News feature. I have said it before and I am sure I will say it again the charity spirit of the Rangers Family is second to none.

 “We wish Eddie and the Glasgow Gladiators all the very best and look forward to keeping in touch and hearing how their plans for the future develop.”

Speaking last night at Ibrox, where he watched the Rangers versus Aberdeen match, Eddie said: Thanks a million to everybody that has sponsored me to help the club to move forward and hopefully I can keep continuing it to make the club even better. Thanks a lot!

You can contribute to Eddie’s fundraising too by following this LINK.