Supporting Ed Slater
Like all of the rugby community, we at the Old Pats were devastated to learn of the tragic diagnosis of Motor Neurone disease given to Ed Slater.
Ed has been a stalwart of Premiership Rugby for many years, firstly with his home town club of Leicester Tigers with whom he won the title in 2012/13 and since 2017 with Gloucester Rugby. He made 90 appearances for the Cherry and Whites and was admired for the traditional lock-forward attributes of physicality that he brought to the side. Ed and his family live close to our club in Cheltenham and are very much in our thoughts.
Motor Neurone Disease (MND ) is, sadly, relatively common with around 5000 sufferers in the UK at any point in time. It is likely to affect 1:300 people at some time in their life. It is progressive, (i.e. it gets worse over time) and often rapidly so. It is currently incurable. Symptoms are variable depending on which of a range of related conditions are applicable but usually include worsening muscle weakness over several months.
Several high profile sportsmen have been diagnosed with MND including former Springbok World Cup winner Joost van der Westhuizen and Scottish lock Doddie Weir. Both have founded charities (J9 and My Name’5 Doddie) aimed at researching further aspects of the disease. Some preliminary findings do suggest that the disease is more common in sports players but no conclusive link to rugby has yet been shown.
The Old Pats have previously been involved with raising funds for MND charities and we are currently exploring a number of ways we can help Ed and his family which we’ll update everyone soon.
In the meantime, Gloucester Rugby have set up a Just Giving fund for Ed with a target of £440,000 which can be found HERE
Written by
Dr Tom Perris – Rugby Safe Officer