'It’s been hell’ - But little Rio's a fighter: Ex-Sheffield Wednesday defender Tommy Spurr's tribute
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To look at the four-year-old galloping around the pitch at Sheffield’s Legacy Park on Wednesday you’d never have known that he’s just endured a 12 month period that no child should have to go through – placing the ball on the grass he went through the local media, ordering them to have a shot at him in turn.
Things are on the up, though, after the former Owl and his wife, Chloe, were told last week that for the first time since his Wilms tumour diagnosis last year there had been no trace of cancer found in his body.
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Hide Ad“He just wants to go swimming,” Spurr said with a smile. “That’s all he wants to do. Hopefully we’ll get a date soon to get his Hickman Line removed, and we can throw him into a pool and let him enjoy himself with his little brother Rudy…
“Everyone is biased towards their own, obviously, but I do feel like he’s a very special little boy. To have gone through everything that he’s gone through, being prodded and poked, losing his hair, having surgery, and he’s still making people smile. We couldn’t be prouder of him. To be so caring and sensitive, like I say, we couldn’t be prouder.”
Sadly, though, young Rio’s recent all clear doesn’t necessarily mean the end of his fight, which is why on May 14th two teams of Wednesday and Sheffield United legends will be coming together to raise money for his cause in case the worst happens and the cancer in his kidneys comes back.
Spurr explained, “It’s just been hell, you’re just kind of floating and getting through days, but your mind at times goes to dark places and you have to fight those thoughts. Rio and Rudy have got me and Chloe through that…
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Hide Ad“He’s had all the treatment that he can have for what he’s been diagnosed with, and due to the high-risk features of his tumour if he was to relapse then there are no real options for him to have more treatment over here. It’s why we’re still pushing with fundraising, there’s a one in two chance it comes back, and if it does then his chances of his survival plummet to just 10%.
“So we need to be in a position where the worst does happen then we need to have options. I couldn’t forgive myself if we weren’t in a position to give him every chance of beating it.”
The Steel City derby in S9 will feature the likes of Marcus Tudgay, Carlton Palmer and Chris Brunt, with ‘Big Ron’ Atkinson taking to the sidelines as a special guest manager.
You can buy tickets for the game at the Olympic Legacy Park by clicking the link at the bottom of this page, and with Neil Warnock in the other dugout there’s going to be a real derby feel about the whole thing.