Coritiba Wear Norwich Fan's Name on Their Shirts to Raise MND Awareness
A Brazilian football club wore an English fan's name on their shirts to raise awareness of motor neurone disease, after illness stopped him travelling to watch them play.
Coritiba, a club from Curitiba in southern Brazil, faced Chapecoense on Saturday in Serie A — Brazil's top flight — and won. But the result was almost beside the point. Every Coritiba shirt carried the name "Jonny Butcher" where a player's surname usually sits, alongside the message: "Your strength inspires us. We stand as one." The shirt design also featured a sunflower, the international symbol for non-visible disabilities (BBC Sport).
Jonny Butcher is 29, from Norwich, and was diagnosed in February with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — the most common form of motor neurone disease, a progressive condition that attacks the nerve cells controlling movement and has no cure (Coritiba). MND gradually robs people of the ability to walk, talk, eat, and breathe.
Butcher's bucket list included attending a Coritiba match at the club's Couto Pereira stadium with his brother-in-law. Breathing difficulties and loss of mobility made the trip impossible (BBC Sport). So Coritiba brought the match to him — or as close as they could.
After the Brazilian national anthem, Coritiba's players posed with a banner bearing Butcher's name and covered in signatures from fans, players, and staff. Some of the tribute shirts will be sent to Butcher's family and to an institution supporting people with rare diseases, including MND (BBC Sport). The club's announcement also referenced Coritiba shirts being available in Norwich, connecting the two cities across an ocean (Coritiba).
A relative, Ana Clara, spoke to BBC Sport about what the gesture meant to the family.
What moves this story beyond a single club's kindness is the distance it crosses. A young man in Norfolk, a stadium in southern Brazil, a disease most people have never heard of until it touches someone they love. Coritiba turned a league fixture into a billboard for awareness, and they did it because one fan could not be there in person.
Coritiba won the match. The shirts will outlast the result.
