Alan Shearer reflects on life-changing trip to Uganda

Mar 12 2008 by The Journal

IN January, Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer flew to Uganda, in East Africa, with a team from the BBC’s Sport Relief.

The former England captain played a 30-minute game of football with the children of Aids victims in the capital, Kampala, and the photos that hit the newspapers were both joyful and heartwarming – featuring Shearer and his trademark celebration during the kickabout with the kids.

Today, The Journal carries exclusive words and pictures that show a different, heartbreaking side to the no nonsense striker’s life-changing trip to the heart of Africa. Here, the Match of the Day pundit writes in moving detail about the trip that will stay with him forever.

The visit took place against a backdrop of speculation about whether Shearer would take up a coaching role with Kevin Keegan at his beloved football club.

But the star’s journey into the slums of Kamotcha put the Newcastle United rumour mill into perspective.

Uganda is a country where an estimated one million children have been orphaned by HIV/Aids and life expectancy is 49, compared to 79 in the UK.

Here – ahead of the start of his bike ride from St James’s Park to London tomorrow – the 37-year-old writes about his trip, and of his meeting with Grace, a 48-year-old who is dying of Aids-related illnesses.

ALAN SHEARER’S UGANDAN DIARY

The week leading up to my trip to Africa with Sport Relief was a pretty hectic one to say the least.

Despite all the goings on around the situation at Newcastle I’d been thinking a lot about what to expect in Uganda and trying to prepare myself the best I could for what I’d see there.

Having spoken to a lot of people I’d painted a relatively decent picture in my mind of the kind of scenes I’d be witnessing and like most other people I’d seen the films from past Red Nose Day and Sport Relief campaigns.

But the truth is people can talk to you about what you’ll see, describe the things you’ll hear, warn you about how you’ll be affected, – but you’ll never be prepared. What I’ve seen will stay with me forever. It may sound like a cliché but seeing the way people live in this day and age in places like the Ugandan capital of Kampala puts everything into very sharp perspective.

A bad day at home, a problem in your life – whatever it is, when you put it up against the day to day reality of how some people are forced to exist, there really is no comparison. None.

In many ways what I was taken to see feels so removed from life at home – but it couldn’t be more real to the people involved – every loved one lost, every dying child, every day that survival is the one and only objective. Life doesn’t get much tougher than that.

I was privileged enough to be invited into many people’s homes in my few days out there. Grace was one of those people. After manoeuvring myself into her tiny shack, which is buried deep in the slums of the Kamotcha area, it very quickly became obvious that Grace is in excruciating pain. Fighting the urge to scratch at the lesions that cover her body, she tells me her story.

As the last surviving member of a family of 11 she has lost brothers, sisters, and a husband to HIV/Aids.

Living with her now are five children, all under 10 years old, some are hers, some orphans from her decimated extended family. Grace herself is 48 and she is dying before my eyes. Her biggest fear is what the future holds for the children she cares for. When Aids claims her life too what will happen to them?

Sitting next to her mattress it’s almost impossible to believe you’re still in 2008 – it’s like something from the middle ages.

The eldest of the children, Fiona, is just 10, but has been forced to abandon her childhood and take almost complete responsibility for the family now that Grace is bed-ridden.

From fetching backbreaking containers of water, to desperately trying to find enough food to feed everyone, this is a girl with an unbelievable amount resting on her young shoulders.

There seems no way out – but there is.

The anti-retroviral drugs that could transform the lives of Grace and the kids who depend on her are relatively inexpensive.

But to Grace they are a million miles away and even if she could afford them, she wouldn’t be able to buy enough food to feed herself properly – which is vital to allow the tablets to work.

But Grace and the kids are lucky. A local project called KCCC are planning to fund the tablets and the food for her. As she is told the news she breaks down, unable to say anything except thank you.

It’s incredible that a family in Newcastle, or Sheffield or Coventry who get sponsored to do the Sport Relief Mile can make a situation exactly like this happen.

But that’s exactly the case, Sport Relief funds projects like KCCC across Africa and by taking the time to do the mile you could well be saving the lives of an entire family like yours.

It’s an amazing thought.