Edinburgh football club formed to honour player's mum takes on new challenge for cancer charity

An Edinburgh football club formed to honour a player’s mum and raise money for Macmillan cancer charity has taken on a new challenge during lockdown.

Macmillan Samba FC was created in 2017 to honour Linda Tierney, the mother of club founding member Jonny McGraw.

In three years the club has raised nearly £10,000 for the charity with club fees, sponsorship and fundraising events.

Now members have taken on the challenge of doing 1,000 keepy-ups each during lockdown to raise money for Macmillan at a time when many charities are struggling.

Ms Tierney was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015, and after a period of remission it returned in December 2016, with doctors advising that this time it was terminal.

A few months after the diagnosis Mr McGraw set up the football team with a group of friends, in an echo of a pub team called Samba.

Ms Tierney was the club’s ‘number one fan’, going to as many games as she could and sometimes giving players a pep talk beforehand.

She would also help with the running of the club, and often washed the strips.

Her health began to deteriorate in the club’s second season, and she died in January 2019 at the local hospice.

Mr McGraw said: “It was amazing how motivated everyone was to raise funds for Macmillan.

“A few of the players had their own personal reasons for joining the club. Cancer is sadly such a common disease that has touched so many people and that of course includes the players.

“Macmillan Samba has continued to flourish and we managed to finish 4th out of twelve teams last season.

“With the pandemic dominating decisions and a restructure of the league, we’ve moved up to division one and finished 6th out of twelve.”

He added: “It’s hard to come to terms with the loss of your mum. I can’t thank the boys in the club enough for taking on so much on while I dealt with things.

“The club is growing from strength to strength – we have a fantastic team and a great bunch of lads. I know my mum would be so proud of how well they’ve performed and kept going.

“As a team, it’s all about raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support at every opportunity we can.

“We have yearly charity matches, a legends match and an annual fundraiser.

“During the lockdown the players ran a total of 631.51km in aid of Macmillan and to keep the fitness going we are now taking part in their ‘1,000 football keepy-up’ challenge.’

Angela McCormack, Macmillan Area Fundraising Manager for South & East Scotland, said: “I want to thank Jonny and the whole team for raising funds for Macmillan during this time when our fundraising has taken a considerable dip.

“We rely on the generosity of our supporters to fund our vital cancer support services. Collectively the team’s fundraising efforts has raised £10k for the charity since 2017, via personal donations, fundraising events and sponsorship for Jonny’s Edinburgh Half Marathon run.

We are extremely grateful to Macmillan Samba FC for their continued support in raising funds and awareness of our cause, especially during these challenging times”.

The club fundraising page can be found here.