If rugby league clubs suffer their towns can often suffer with them and the coronavirus crisis is hitting the sport hard
This is going to sound like the setup to a surreal joke, but nevertheless: last week, a young man from St Helens called Harry Roberts was lying in bed when he looked up and saw the comedian Johnny Vegas standing at his bedroom window, bearing a box of face masks.
As it turned out, Roberts – a 19-year-old St Helens fan who suffers from cerebral palsy and quadriplegia – had been the unwitting beneficiary of a visit from the Steve Prescott Foundation, the charity set up by the 1990s and 2000s Saints full-back who died in 2013 of a rare form of stomach cancer. Over the last decade the foundation has become one of rugby league’s best known philanthropic enterprises. During the coronavirus crisis it has been delivering food and protective equipment to households in St Helens and, as a proud Saints fan at a temporary loose end, Vegas has been cheerfully mucking in.
Written by Jonathan Liew
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/apr/27/rugby-league-clubs-are-the-beating-heart-of-their-community-and-must-survive under the title “Rugby league clubs are the beating heart of their community and must survive | Jonathan Liew”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
