Legend’s search ends in sadness

Apr 15 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

NEWCASTLE United legend Wyn Davies has spoken of his sadness at learning his five-year search for an ill teenager he visited in 1969 has failed.

In that year – only a month before he played in the Newcastle team that won the Inter City Fairs Cup – the Welsh striker sat at the bedside of Anne Rooney, a 17-year-old multiple sclerosis sufferer from Bensham Road, Gateshead.

The pair exchanged teddy bears sporting the Newcastle colours – a momento that Wyn has kept safe on a china cabinet in his Bolton home ever since.

For the past five years he has tirelessly searched for Ms Rooney so that he could return the bear.

But Mr Davies last week discovered that she had died in 1978 – at the age of only 26 – following a relapse of the disease.

He said: “It’s such a tragic story. I’ve been searching for years to find if she had survived. She had been in my thoughts because I kept looking at her picture, I get quite emotional about it.

“I wanted to find her so that I could give it her back, and she might be able to give it to her kids.

“I’ve tried for more than five years. I’m heartbroken now though to find out like this.”

Anne’s father Tommy Rooney spent months by her bedside willing her out of a coma before Wyn and the 1969 Newcastle team visited three days before her 17th birthday. But it was this visit that Tommy, believes snapped her out of the coma and gave her an extra nine years of life.

Mr Rooney, 81, from Bensham Road, Gateshead, said: “We contacted The Journal when she was ill because they had this Action Desk feature which was like a Jim'll Fix It concept.

“She loved Newcastle and they arranged for the whole team to come down and see her. We had been told to sit and talk to her constantly to help her come out of it.

“But it was coming up to her birthday and I was worried that she might not be awake, but when I told her about Wyn coming, she blinked and it was her first movement in months.

“I can only say what Wyn and the lads did that day was incredible. They woke her up and gave her an extra nine years.”

After regaining consciousness she was invited to greet the team off the plane when they returned from the Fairs Cup final win over Újpesti Dózsa.

Since her death, Mr Rooney has also lost his two other children, Maureen aged only 50, and Thomas at 52.

Mr Rooney said: “The lads were great that day. Wyn gave Anne a black and white teddy bear, and she gave him one too.

“He still has it on his china cabinet.

“We are always grateful that they helped her have more time.”