Raith Rovers: New loan striker William Akio reveals his incredible rise from Kenyan refugee camp to starring in Scottish football

South Sudanese forward Akio, 24, who is on loan from Premiership Ross County until the end of the season, said that his parentswalked for weeks to get to the refugee camp after fleeing the Second Sudanese Civil War.

"My dad ended up going to Canada first so they could save some money and try to bring us over,” he told the Fife Free Press.

"Me and my older brother were born in the refugee camp so it was tough. My mum and dad didn’t know if they were going to make it but their goal was to have a future for their five kids so it was a rollercoaster for sure.

"The camp was just a lot of huts, there wasn’t any infrastructure. My parents didn’t know if they were going to make it.

"They didn’t have regular necessities like eating food, getting clean water. That was a struggle every single day.

"They just had to boil up dirty water and use it for a meal. There was lots of corn from the harvest, just the basics really.”

Akio, who revealed he liked eating haggis when recently trying it for the first time, said he was very lucky to escape serious illness from what he ate back on those horrible days in Kenya.

He added: “I’ll tell you a funny story, I used to go around and eat whatever I found on the floor, dirt, garbage, insects and stuff.

"One time I got really sick and had a bad stomach and flu and they rushed me to the hospital but thank God I was OK.

"I’m a tough boy now, I can get through any kind of sickness!

"The way I came into the world makes me feel more grateful for what I have now, 100%. The life that I’m living now is a lot better and a dream come true.

"For me it’s like every opportunity that comes my way I need to make sure I make the most of it because essentially I should not be here.

"But everything happens for a reason. So, for me, every time I step on the field, every time I go to training I just want to make sure that I’m as focused as possible because that’s exactly what my parents want me to do and that’s what they did to get us here.

"Every moment for me is very valuable.”