MY PROMISE – WHY TOUCHLINETECH MEANS SO MUCH TO ME
For me, TouchlineTech is more than a business.
In 2016 I lost my best friend, Matt, to cancer.
Matt and I had been best friends from the age of 10, and we played and then later coached together at Central Ajax FC in Warwick. Our football club was the place that brought us together as kids, reunited us as coaches after we had been to University, and during Matt’s illness, became central to our efforts to raise funds to help with Matt’s treatment.
When they were founded, Central Ajax took their name from AFC Ajax and so I decided to arrange a charity bike ride from Warwick to Amsterdam. The event started with a charity football match between the Ajax Youth side of 2011-13 and a Matt Bates XI made up of Matt’s former school friends and teammates. The event was staged at Ajax Park in Warwick and alongside the game there was a raffle, an auction and a cake sale. After the match Matt Wells, Joe Weston and myself started on our 430 mile journey – a 5 day bike ride that took us through France and Belgium, and finished at the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam.
By this point Matt was too ill to join us, and we decided to film the ride so that he could be involved in the journey. We made a documentary called ‘Ajax to Ajax’ which started out as the story of a group of teammates doing a charity bike ride and ended up chronicling the last days of Matt’s life. After his death the film was premiered in the local cinema and for me it showed the power and the importance of a community coming together in difficult times.
During Matt’s final weeks we reminisced about our days playing together at Central Ajax, and reflected on the fact that the club had started to struggle in recent times. I knew that I was losing my friend and I didn’t want to lose our club aswell, so I made Matt a promise – that I would go back to the club and try and ensure its survival.
I spent the next year working as a volunteer to help safeguard the future of the club. During this time I struggled badly with my mental health – some days I found it difficult to get out of bed and only the thought of my promise to Matt kept me going. Remarkably, although I started out with the intention of saving the club, in some ways the club ended up saving me.
TouchlineTech is my way of giving back to the community that gave me my friendship with Matt, and kept me going through my toughest days.
It’s also why TouchlineTech is proud to support organisations that tackle mental health issues such as Mind, Footballers Minds and Kaleidoscope +.
You can watch the Ajax to Ajax documentary on this link: Watch Now
