SAMUEL Cox, Guyana’s Senior Men’s National Football Team captain, who is now a coach at English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, is raising money to help NHS staff at Northwick Park Hospital, joining the line to help healthcare workers on the frontline battling COVID-19.
The former Spurs player will give the money to the Harrow hospital for more personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus outbreak, as a form of continued gratitude for doctors rescuing his mother nearly ten years ago.
In 2011, after he was signed to Barnet FC, his mother contracted a rare interstitial lung disease and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit at Northwick Park.
Cox, who currently lives in Elstree, told the Watford Observer newspapers that “at the time I was back home, and my mum had a little sniffle – nothing significant. We went to the doctors and they said to take a prescription. But then one day, I thought I was in a nightmare, I was in my bedroom and I could hear mum struggling for breath.”
He explained that he tried his best to calm his mother as his dad called for an ambulance and she was placed in an induced coma. His mother remained at the hospital for fourteen weeks.
“Till this day, they can’t pinpoint how she contracted the disease. Everyone in our family owes an awful lot to the NHS, without them she was pretty much a goner,” Cox stated.
At the time, Cox continued going into training but decided to thank the hospital by raising around £2,000 by cutting his “trademark” long hair which reached his shoulders.
Cox explained, “Seeing my mum in that state, especially after never seeing her ill, it scared me.“She can’t do things as normal as she used to – walking one step on the stairs is equivalent for us walking seven – but she can still get about. They used the money to get equipment at the time and decorate the ward.”
Now, Cox is hoping to do the opposite and grow his hair back to its previous length and raise money once more in support of staff at the hospital as they tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
“I thought with everything going on I should repay the heroic work the NHS are doing who as they put countless hours at fighting the virus. I think it’s evident the graft they’re putting in, their blood, sweat and tears – I’m hugely grateful and thankful.”
The fundraiser was inspired after talking with footballer Danny Rose, who was unveiled as a mystery donor of £19,000 to the North Middlesex University Hospital in Edmonton. (Rawle Toney)
