Dundee FC fan Ronnie McIntosh will undertake a half-time sponsored racewalk round the Dens Park track next month to raise money for the Dark Blues despite being a double amputee who has suffered almost 25 years of severe ill health.
Ronnie (61), who received a kidney transplant in 2009 after six years on dialysis, will also ask his fellow Dees to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
Ronnie was a keen amateur athlete when he was diagnosed with Sjorgen’s Syndrome, a rare auto-immune disease which can attack any organ in the body, in 1987.
After five years, his performances began to drop and doctors told him the disease had started to attack his kidneys. Ronnie found his visits to the hospital becoming ever more frequent, and he was eventually placed on dialysis in 2003.
He escaped with his life four years later when a golf club-wielding drug addict attacked him outside his home and, in 2008, his illnesses led to gangrene infection, leaving doctors with no option but to amputate both legs below the knee within three months of each other.
Better news was around the corner, however, and in May 2009 Ronnie received the call he had waited many years for a donor had been found.
Having never lost his competitive edge, and with his donor kidney providing him with a new lease of life, Ronnie started racewalk training, which involves heel-toe contact with the ground, within six months of the transplant.
He completed a mile in 20 minutes, and was soon competing in road races and winning admiration for his efforts, recently being named Dundee Disabled Sports Person of the Year.
Ronnie will walk round the pitch at half time during Dundee’s home game against Stirling Albion on April 10, and all sponsorship proceeds will be given to the club he has supported since he was a boy.
In doing so, Ronnie says he wants to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and also to give hope to people whose lives have been affected by amputation.
“I’m delighted to be doing this and to be able to help Dundee, hopefully to get more people to sign up as donors, and to send out a message that losing a limb need not be the end of your life,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of setbacks in my life but I haven’t given up. I had to learn to walk again twice within six months.
“The doctors told me I would need a wheelchair and walking sticks for at least two years but I managed to discard them in three and a half months. The docs were speechless.
“Because I know what it means to spend 11 months in Ninewells (Hospital), to contract MRSA and C. diff and to spend six years on dialysis, I know how lucky I am now, in spite of everything that’s happened.
“When you get a donor organ you suddenly get your life back. When I received this gift, I knew I had to make the most of it. I’ve supported Dundee since I was 10, and am saddened to see us in the present state. If I can do my bit to raise some money and get a bit of publicity for the organ donation scheme and to help amputees then I’ll be delighted.
“I have proved the doubters wrong so far, and I hope Dundee FC can do the same and go on to survive and prosper. Hopefully the fans will get behind me in my quest to raise much-needed money for my beloved club, and they also think about joining the donor register and give someone else the chance of the gift of life.”
Leaflets about organ donation will be handed to fans as they enter Dens Park on the day of Ronnie’s big walk, and is also available at www.organdonation.nhs.uk. Anyone inspired by Ronnie’s tale and who would like to sponsor him can do so by contacting him on ronald840@btinternet.com.