We had seen the photo of Alan Shearer below carrying out a disabled fan before the Entertainers game and thought it reflected so well on Alan Shearer himself and on The Alan Shearer Foundation.
It turns out the boy is 9 year-old Kian Henaghan from Cullercoats and he was Alan’s mascot for the game.
Alan Shearer holding 9 year-old Kian Henaghan
It seems the photo has rightly attracted some attention.
His father is 39 year-old Craig Henaghan and he said it was rare to get his son to be smiling so much:
“It’s very difficult to get a picture of Kian smiling, so when I saw the photo on the front page of the Chronicle, I needed to get that picture.”
“We thought everything was normal but then his growth wasn’t matching others.”
“He recently started to walk at eight. That was a mountain that he climbed.”
“He loves football though he doesn’t understand what is going on. He celebrates when the other team scores, so that can be a problem when we play Sunderland.”
“Everyone was brilliant with Kian.”
“With Kian’s condition he didn’t really understand the importance of the game or who [Alan] was but it very rare he gets that excited.”
“When Alan led the team out, he just picked him up.” “He carried Kian out as if he was his own.”
“That was really nice.”
“He is a complete legend on and off the pitch.” “What he does for the people in this region is second to none.”
Kian has Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome and he was diagnosed with the rare disease when he was just 12 months old.
The condition causes seizures, delayed growth and development and intellectual disability.
We wanted to showcase the difficulties young Kian is bravely facing in life and at the same time give Alan Shearer some well deserved praise for making Kian’s life that much happier by inviting him to the Entertainers game.
It shows Alan and the rest of the players who met with Kian, his father and the family before the game have big hearts and are willing to help those most in need.
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
clinath@ed
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:11 PM
Comment #1missed the boat twice today…thought i’d be first for a change
clinath@ed
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:12 PM
Comment #2Love that shirt. Any idea yet if they are for sale anywhere?
Jail for Ashley
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:12 PM
Comment #3I got you clinath
clinath@ed
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:17 PM
Comment #4😉 JfA
Mag52
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:35 PM
Comment #5Jail.
We’ve flogged this to death so my last post ( until of course Ed gets bored and brings it up again) is this:
A truer scenario would be that of an out of work guy lands a job with an employer who has a very dubious reputation for running his business. He takes the job, aware of this reputation, gets a huge rise for doing a decent job early on, bites the bullet in spite of the frustrations of working for this clown, and finally calls it quits when he lines up a better job. Less blinkered mortals would not see too much wrong with this.
Budge123
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:39 PM
Comment #6Clinath it was mentioned that the strips were made specially for the game and are being auctioned off.
Don’t know when
Jail for Ashley
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:43 PM
Comment #7Mag52,
Completely avoided my question which anyone with morals would have answered no, you couldn’t answer truthfully without showing that even you know that Pardew lied through his teeth for his paymaster.
Jail for Ashley
Oct 20, 2016 at 1:52 PM
Comment #8He didn’t just bite the bullet though, he made statements backing Ashley off his own back, he deliberately threw cups, what was Ashley going to do if we progressed, Sack him for it. The guy was a cretin and for some twisted logic you choose to stick up for him thinking it ties in with your anti Ashley stance. I honestly can’t see how you can still be anti Ashley and yet pro Pardew knowing what we know now.