This Leicester Life: The running Fox and the “special, special club”
Tomorrow morning, Leicester City fan Steve Aquilina will get up at 5am to complete the last of 31 daily 5k runs throughout October to raise money for the Prostate Cancer UK charity. One of those runs will live longest in the memory for Steve and his family.
DB: How much running had you done before you started this challenge, and why have you picked Prostate Cancer UK as your chosen charity?
SA: I probably get out for a run once or twice a week. Before this month, I wouldn’t have gone every single day but at the same time I'm not a couch potato.
Touch wood I haven't been directly impacted by prostate cancer affecting either me or my family. But I'll be 50 in December and as you get older, you realise blokes can be blase about health and talking about stuff.
I think it was over the last few years of watching Sky Sports and Jeff Stelling talking about prostate cancer I started realising how serious it is.
I became aware of things like one of the teachers from my high school passed away from prostate cancer. And then I saw an event and because it was called Prostate FC and Prostate United and it was all to do with football, I thought you know what, I'll give that a go.
So I signed up and my wife, Jane, told me I was mad, but once I started she’s been my biggest cheerleader. And since I've signed up for it, the amount of people who have reached out to say they've been affected either directly or indirectly by prostate cancer has been eye-opening.
I was contacted by another Leicester fan called Mark Francis - we follow each other on Twitter - and he said he'd been suffering with prostate cancer.
It's been overwhelming in terms of how many people it affects and I suppose people who wouldn't necessarily talk about it seem to be opening up about things more.
DB: Tell me about the Leicester City connection - how did that come about?
SA: It was a Friday evening and Mark contacted me and told me to let him know if I fancied going for a run. I said I don't think you realise but I live in Preston.
So then it became an idea to go down to Leicester and do a run. Matt Piper jumped in and said he would come for a run with us as well.
So we looked at it and we thought we'd try and do it before the Sunderland game last Tuesday.
We got our match tickets and Jane suggested getting in contact with the club. She said it's probably the one club that would try to make something like that work, which I like to think is true. So I contacted the club last week and just explained what I was doing.
To be honest, it didn't look like it was going to come off because I hadn't heard back. Normally, the club reply within a couple of days and I was getting a bit nervous that I hadn’t had a response.
So I emailed the board and said I'm not complaining, but I'm just conscious of time and wanted to see whether you guys can have a look at it.
We got to Tuesday afternoon, we were in Leicester, and I got an email from LCFC Help to say sorry, due to the Lionesses taking over from the Wednesday for their game against Belgium on the Friday night, we're not going to be able to do anything - although you are welcome to run around the outside of the stadium.
I was a bit deflated. But we went to watch the game and in the morning my phone rang.
It was the guy in charge of managing the training ground, inviting me to go and do the run there.
He said I might even be able to do it round the first team training pitch but he'd have to check with Enzo. I didn't know if he was taking the mickey!
We turned up - me, Jane and our son Alfie - and the staff explained that the first team weren't out there because it was a rest day after the match but there were a few guys in for injury rehab. So I went for my run and the staff were absolutely first class. All the ground staff who were working - they were all encouraging me along.
On my last lap, Kasey McAteer and Yunus Akgun came out with a couple of the sports science guys to do a little bit of work on one of the training pitches. As soon as I ran towards them they all stopped and clapped with words of encouragement.
Then afterwards, Callum Doyle came out and had a chat with me and Alfie.
At the same time, Jane had been talking to some of the staff there and apparently it was Top that made it happen. He emailed about 10 o'clock on the Tuesday night after the Sunderland game and said to make sure someone gives this guy a call and get him up to the training ground.
It was my quickest 5k of the lot, so I think it was inspiring running in the shadow of this big building with the Leicester City badge on it. Part of me was thinking I need to slow down and milk it - it was a really fantastic experience.
“On my last lap, Kasey McAteer and Yunus Akgun came out with a couple of the sports science guys to do a little bit of work on one of the training pitches.
As soon as I ran towards them they all stopped and clapped with words of encouragement.”
DB: That's superb. I think after last season, you just want the club to be doing positive things on and off the pitch and to hear about stuff like this, this is what you want your football club to be.
SA: I go on Foxestalk and listen to all the podcasts and there was obviously a massive hangover at the end of last season. People were moaning about the way the club had been ruined, how it's not the same anymore and it's lost its identity and all that kind of stuff. And to be fair, I felt a little bit detached from it all last season too.
This season, I've felt like the club is on its way back. And then obviously Wednesday morning getting that call and the way they treated us, it showed me it's still that same club as when Vichai was there.
It was really such a nice atmosphere around the training ground. Everybody was so polite, so welcoming - there was not one person that I walked past who didn't say hello.
DB: So speaking to you, I can hear the northern accent. Did Callum Doyle pick up on that, and why exactly do you support Leicester?
SA: Yeah! We explained we were from Preston and we travel down for games. Alfie's grassroots under-14s team had been invited to play against Fleetwood Town's academy side that night. So Callum was asking him about that and they were chatting about football.
I was born in Somerset. When I was five, we moved to Melton Mowbray because of my dad’s job.
When we moved up there, he decided to take me to watch my first football match.
Luckily he took me to Filbert Street - I was about six or seven and we went to watch Leicester against Swansea in the old Division Two. We soon moved again and I’ve lived in Preston ever since. So it's been 40 odd years that I've lived up here now and, despite not having any connection to the area themselves, Jane and our daughter Livi follow Leicester too, as well as me and Alfie.
During the great escape season we were on telly quite a bit and Alfie was watching me jump around like a lunatic. And I think that helped him have the same experience as me 40 years earlier, falling in love with Leicester.
“We explained we were from Preston and we travel down for games.
Alfie's grassroots under-14s team had been invited to play against Fleetwood Town's academy side that night.
So Callum was asking him about that and they were chatting about football.”
DB: I can identify with that, not being from Leicester but supporting the club from a young age. With how things have gone in the past 10 or 15 years, you feel so relieved that one of your parents took you along to Filbert Street.
SA: Yeah, I think that’s exactly it. I think a lot of fans of other clubs must look at Leicester and feel a bit jealous about the experiences we’ve had.
I can only say I wouldn't change it. If somebody said to me that I could go back 40 years and support Manchester United or Manchester City or whoever instead, I'd say no chance. I would not change it for the world.
The ups and downs and whatever - there’s just something special about this football club.
Even now when you think for a moment that the club must be on its backside and it's all going to be flat and horrible and we’ll go back to mediocrity, we turn into this mini Man City, blowing everybody away.
Obviously the last 10 years have been unbelievable. To win the league. To win the FA Cup. To win the Charity Shield.
But the one thing that probably stays with me most, as daft as it sounds, is when we won the League Cup against Middlesbrough - because that was the first major trophy we'd won in my time supporting the club. I never thought we'd ever do anything like that.
DB: We’ve done pretty well away at Preston in recent years, even during poor seasons. Do any moments stand out from our games in your part of the world?
SA: Funnily enough, we played Preston before last season in a friendly and the team actually stayed at the hotel which pretty much backs on to where we live.
Me and Jane had been out on a date night. On the way back, I spotted the Leicester City team coach in the hotel car park.
So we went in the hotel and as we were ordering our drinks, Wesley Fofana walks past followed by loads of other players. We had some photos taken and we had a chat with Kasper Schmeichel.
Kasper was asking us what we were doing there. I said our lad’s back home and he‘d be fuming that we’re here having our photos taken with you. Kasper said to go and get him but we said no, it's a date night.
So Kasper told us to bring him the next morning. He said he’d talk to the coach driver and make sure Alfie would be able to have a look around the coach and get pictures with loads of the players.
Alfie has had some fantastic experiences in the past ten years. He's met the team two or three times, he’s seen us win the Premier League and the FA Cup. Then he's had Wednesday, which was obviously equally as exciting for him as it was for me.
It's been the best. When you do something like this and you see other Leicester fans you’ve never even met supporting you and donating, and how the club have gone above and beyond too - it just makes it feel like a special, special club to support.
Got a few quid to spare?
Donate to Prostate Cancer UK via Steve’s JustGiving page:
