Workington Town have joined forces with local amateur club Seaton Rangers to support a former player’s son who is fighting a rare condition.
Archie Routledge is the eight-year-old of ex-Town and Seaton Rangers centre Mark Routledge who played for Town in the early 2000s under David Rotherham.
Town are supporting his community club to raise awareness and crucial funds to help the family during a really difficult period in their lives.
Mark, and his wife Emma. have given an insight into what their son is having to contend with.
They said: “Archie suffers from hereditary pancreatitis, which unfortunately has now turned chronic, and this resulted in some serious complications.
“He is now on 20-hour a day infusions and having not eaten since November he is fed via picc lines.
“When Archie was hospitalised in November, we were told at this point no surgeon in the UK would touch him due to how severe the inflammation was inside. We were told that Archie would need a total pancreatectomy with Islet Auto-Transplantation (TPIAT).
“However this is not commissioned in children and we needed to gain access to the funding and a National MDT board meeting to approve the operation.
“It has been a fight to get Archie to an operable condition, alongside the operation approval and planning. Archie will be the first child to receive a TPIAT at The Great North Children’s Hospital.
“As you can imagine, we are anxiously awaiting this date and live in hope that this operation will enable him to get home and live his life free from pain.”
On Saturday, June 29, the Seaton team will be wearing a special Newcastle United-style kit for the game v Drighlington which will be sponsored by Workington Town, Packhorse Pooligans and Seaton vice presidents.
Newcastle United are Archie’s favourite team and the club thought it appropriate to wear a strip based on Newcastle’s famous black and white stripes.
On Sunday, August 4, Workington Town will face coach Anthony Murray’s old club North Wales Crusaders and be will playing in a specially commissioned one-off shirt that will be auctioned post game alongside a number of other fundraising efforts.
The game will be sponsored by the Seaton Rangers vice presidents and on the day they will be marching for Archie and encourage the whole of Seaton to walk on the day from Seaton Club to the Fibrus Community stadium along the old line and now cycle path as part of the fundraising.
Orders for Seaton’s specially commissioned tops will be taken until May 5 and Workington Town will be revealing their kit around May 6 and take pre-orders from that point at www.townshop.co.uk
