An inspirational rugby club president has tonight seen his players trek TWICE the way around the world and raise over £26,000 for the NHS in his memory.
Southport Rugby Football Club President Graham Ellis sadly died four weeks ago, aged 64, just before he was due to officially launch The Ellis Expedition in his honour.
Father-of-three Graham, who was married to wife, Anne, and father of Hugh, Megan and Jack, had recently been told that he was not being put forward for the liver transplant he needed and was instead given just a few months left to live.
For the last few years Graham, a successful chartered surveyor, has been among figures who have driven forward transformational changes at Southport Rugby Football Club both on and off the pitch.
He was always a very jovial figure at Waterloo Road, ready to greet every visitor with a huge smile, always very encouraging to players of all age groups.
He gained most enjoyment from watching talented young players developing through the various age groups and into the first XV.
Throughout July, thanks to an idea by Colin Toohey, players and supporters at the club were due to walk, cycle, run, swim and kayak a total of 16,000km between them – the equivalent distance of Southport to the South Pole – with a £16,000 target. All money raised would go to the NHS.
Such was everyone’s immense respect for Graham that they have instead travelled across the circumference of the world twice over – a total of 72,000km (and still going) with the fundraising total now above £26,000.
All money raised will go towards the Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals Charity.
Colin Toohey said: “We have done it!
“Southport RFC have trekked, rowed, cycled, swam, walked and ran from Southport, to the South Pole, around the circumference of the Earth, and then back from the South Pole to Waterloo Road; Covering 72,000km!
“Thank you to everyone involved.
”We have so far raised in excess of £26,000 for Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals Charity.
Join us this Friday from 6pm to celebrate our achievement and raise a glass to Mr President, Graham Ellis.
“Please keep supporting our appeal for the NHS here: https://www.justgiving.com/team/SouthportRFC”
Gareth Lang and Colin Toohey (both kneeling) from Southport Rugby Football Club launch The Ellis Expedition #TheEllisExpedition Photo by Angus Matheson of Wainwright & Matheson Photography
I spoke with Graham just a couple of weeks before he died. He spoke of his pride at the spirit within Southport Rugby Football Club and how he had helped in its development to what it has become today.
He said: “I love the game. I love Southport in particular.
“A few years ago the club was on its uppers. Thankfully with the likes of Andrew Carney, Anne Sharrock, John Vandermeer, Ed Fletcher, Steve Olive, we have really turned things around.
“They are absolutely wonderful people.
“You couldn’t ask for a better set of people to be running Southport Rugby Football Club.
“Southport is a proper community club, it is inspiring, in every sense of the word.
“Just to be associated with this is enormous. It is about the people. It sums up everything that is good about Southport.”
How to get involved in The Ellis Expedition:
Step One: Download Strava
Step Two: Join our group (https://www.strava.com/clubs/Southport-RFC)
Step Three: Sign up to the challenge (https://www.challengehound.com/…/6f1cd4b0-b089-11ea-b34a-b1…)
Step Four: Connect with Strava
Step Five: Run, Walk, Cycle…
Remember to donate! (www.justgiving.com/team/SouthportRFC)
For more details about The Ellis Expedition please visit: www.pitchero.com/clubs/southportrugbyunionfootballclub/ or email Colin Toohey at: col2e@hotmail.com or follow the Southport RFC page on Facebook.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com
Aw, this was a very nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to make a
great article… but what can I say… I put things off
a whole lot and never manage to get nearly anything done.
Some genuinely excellent content on this web site, thanks for contribution.
Scrap metal material handling Ferrous metal trading Recycled iron products
Ferrous material transportation vehicles, Iron waste reclaiming and repurposing, Metal recycling certification
Scrap metal facility Ferrous material service excellence Iron scrapyard
Ferrous material reprocessing, Scrap iron reclamation operations, Metal waste analysis
Efficient metal waste handling Ferrous material market intelligence Iron scrap dealers
Ferrous material plant operations, Scrap iron scrapyard, Industrial metal collection
Industrial metal waste Ferrous waste recovery facility Iron scrap compaction
Ferrous material air emission control, Iron scrap resale, Precious metal recovery
Metal recycling industry trends Ferrous material integrity Iron recovery depot
Ferrous material recovery and recycling, Iron repurposing center, Metal recycling yard
The core of your writing whilst appearing agreeable at first, did not really work very well with me after some time. Someplace throughout the sentences you were able to make me a believer unfortunately only for a short while. I nevertheless have a problem with your leaps in logic and you would do well to help fill in those gaps. If you actually can accomplish that, I could surely be amazed.
Keep functioning ,impressive job!
I wanted to thank you for this wonderful read!! I certainly
enjoyed every little bit of it. I have you book marked to check
out new things you post…
I go to see everyday a few websites and information sites to read
articles, except this weblog presents quality based posts.
Generally I don’t read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite nice post.