Team Tibbs goes global with support from Ugandan children
The story of a brave teenager battling cancer has gone global after children overseas sent him a heart-warming message of support.
A video to 13-year-old Lucas Tibbs in Great Wyrley has been sent from a group of orphans over 6,000 miles away in Uganda.
It shows them shaving their hair off to support him after he lost his hair when he started chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma Leukemia.
It comes after a charity football match was held for Lucas where Wyrley Juniors FC Dads and Managers played Hawkins Sports FC.
The manager of the under-14s Cheslyn Hay team, Andy Harrison, regularly sends old football boots and kits to an orphanage in Uganda and they agreed to join the fundraising effort by creating the video.
The family, who were devastated by the diagnosis, were ‘shocked’ when they received the video and sent old football kit to them as a thank you.
His mother, Karen Tibbs, said: “We were in his room when I saw the video from them with messages of support in broken English.
“We were shocked by it. It is madness what these kids are doing this for him because they are such a small community who basically have nothing. It is so emotional and it has really lifted Lucas.
“With everything he is going through, Lucas is still so selfless. He noticed they had no shoes and both my boys have played football since they were little so we have donated all of their old kits and shoes.”
Mr Harrison said: “The reaction from the video has been absolutely fantastic and it has had a knock-on effect because other local teams have got in contact with me since about sending boots over.”
“What we throw away means the world to someone else.”
The Cheslyn Hay Sports and Community High School student was diagnosed with cancer in September on the first day he was due to start Year 9 and since then a fundraising campaign, called Team Tibbs has raised over £11,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
As part of the fundraising effort, a group of 15 of his lifelong friends shaved their hair off in front of the year group in a special assembly which raised £1,600.
Lucas is due to start his third round of treatment this week.
