Jamaal Lascelles has been in the news for all the right reasons for his actions on the pitch this season, however the NUFC skipper’s latest actions have showed just what a humble and generous man he is off the field.
It was revealed earlier this week that he came to the aid of a disabled man in Newcastle who fell out of his wheelchair over the weekend, and Match of the Day Mag have since interviewed the 24-year-old to gain an insight into his incredible act of kindness – handing him their ‘Hero of the Year Award’ for 2017 in the process!
The details of the story itself were heart-warming enough when revealed via someone’s Facebook this week, but to hear how it unfolded from the NUFC skipper himself here is quite brilliant:
“As I was pulling up there was a guy kind of falling out of his wheelchair. So obviously I went over and helped him. His wheelchair had broken, one of the wheels had snapped off so I was trying to fix that. It was raining, it was freezing, it was about 8 o’clock at night. I couldn’t fix it.”
“So I thought ‘Okay, I’ll try and get him in my car and I’ll give him a lift home.’ It was only in Gateshead where he lived. I lifted him up but I think he’d just had an operation – he didn’t have any legs. I tried to lift him but it was too painful for him. My car’s quite high up so I didn’t know what to do, so I said ‘come inside the restaurant’.”
“I was chatting to him and rang him a taxi that could take people with wheelchairs. That came, I got him in there and said ‘I’ll get you a few tickets’, I gave him my gloves, gave him £20 for the taxi. I felt sorry for him. When it comes to things like that I’ve got a proper soft spot. He’s battling on, he said he had to push himself 30 minutes back to his house!”
“We’re in a really fortunate position as footballers, we get things handed to us – obviously we’ve had to work hard to get ourselves to this situation, but he went to work one day and his legs were blown off. It gets me annoyed about this ankle, I can’t train, but he’s wheeling himself around Newcastle with no legs.”
“I’m going to give him a few tickets. I do have a soft spot for things like that and he was the nicest guy ever. I think he was about 27, he lost his legs when he was 24. He’s still happy, he’s still battling on, his partner had stuck with him as well which I loved. It just makes you think about how fortunate we are as footballers.”
“He was an ex-Marine. I think he was out in Afghanistan, I think he stepped on a mine. He lost his legs, but his upper body is so strong because he’s always wheeling. It was only 10-15 minutes out of my time. I was on the way into the restaurant, to me it’s not a big deal. To him it probably is.”
As a young captain, towering centre-back and leader, Lascelles has already gained several plaudits as a footballer and proffesional this season, but this really does prove what a down to earth and generous bloke he is.
Ketch – a football writer working for MOTD mag – was the man who conducted this interview with Jamaal at the training ground, and as an NUFC fan himself, he took to Twitter to explain just how impressed he was left by the NUFC skipper:
What a bloke. A credit to his family and our football club.
Here’s his reaction to the award on Twitter today:
A great honour to pick up the hero of the year award from match of the day magazine ?? thanks for the support ?? ?? pic.twitter.com/Y3he5HbxxF
— Jamaal Lascelles (@Lascelles16) December 1, 2017
