England star to referee Canterbury team’s match
Former England football captain turns referee to boost memorial match between recovering addicts from Canterbury and Dover.
Tony Adams is picking up the whistle to help Reach Out and Recover (ROAR) after his own struggle with alcohol addiction.
The event is in honour of Emma Urquhart, a volunteer at ROAR, who lost her life after a battle with addiction. Tickets will go on sale tomorrow for the June 28 fixture and will be played at Margate Football Clubs’s ground.
Leader of ROAR, Anthony Deaville, said: “It’s set up with two recovery organisers, ROAR versus Forward Trust.
“It’s really exciting for the people involved.”
A lot of them are Arsenal fans, he added.
“They get to play on the same pitch as somebody that they grew up admiring. He was an Arsenal legend, who’s also in recovery.”
Tony Adams, said Mr. Deaville, has just taken over as chairman for the Forward Trust and wanted to do something football orientated.
“This should be a big event, if it goes off as we hope, it’ll be the biggest recovery event that’s ever been done in Kent.”
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He explained: “Emma was my partner, who sadly passed away last year. When we play the event, it’ll be a year since she passed. Emma was heavily involved so it’s in her memory.
“It’s weird because she was the football fan and for me, football is okay, but it’s never been my go-to. We were running the five asides before Emma passed, and she was there every week, cheering everyone on and taking pictures for the website. So, it just seemed natural.”
This will be the second Emma Urquhart match played by the ROAR Team, who train in Canterbury’s Lifestyle Fitness gym every Friday from 6-7pm.
“Within the recovery community, a lot of it revolves around meetings, and not everybody wants to do that, especially the younger crowd, they don’t want to sit in meetings talking about how their lives went wrong. They want to be doing fun stuff,” Mr. Deaville added.
“We’ve got all shape, sizes, male, female, I’ve got a transgender lad who comes and plays, and so it’s open to everyone, any skill set, any age, and all are welcome to these games.
“I’d say, over the last year, it’s helped 70 to 80 people in total.”
ROAR also offer cooking classes, meditation services and online forums to help people who are affected or suffer from addiction.
Featured image: Google Street View.