'Scrum pair' Chris McConnell and Will Berry to stage charity match at Kirkcaldy Rugby Club!

Also on McConnell’s radar for a fundraiser is a charity rugby match at Beveridge Park on Sunday, December 15, kick-off 12pm, when he will captain a team of current Kirkcaldy players and club legends against a side skippered by his old Blues team-mate William Berry, 42, a former full-back with 103 Blues caps who last May was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Outdoor children’s nursery owner/manager McConnell, 44, who predominantly played at scrum half for Kirkcaldy 1st XV during his 128-game spell between 2000 and 2010 which included winning the Scottish Shield at Murrayfield and Premier 2 as well as playing in the top flight, told the Fife Free Press: “I’ll have the boots on for this charity match but I won’t play the full game as there are too many young, big lads playing!

"It’s a game I’m greatly looking forward to. Entry will be by £3 donations. There will be a raffle and an auction for some bigger items, plus a bake sale that Will’s wife Laura is organising.

"The idea is to bring down as many club supporters and their families as possible.

"There will be kids’ rugby matches happening on the same day and The Buffalo Farm are providing some children’s inflatables which hopefully the weather will hold for and we’ve got various small fund-raising activities and games. The response has been amazing.”

Kinghorn man McConnell, whose 11-year-old son Callan has played for the Wee Blues team at Kirkcaldy, also has a daughter Cora, 12.

The heroic former Blues player has previously handed over £1800 in charity cash to the now defunct Cancer Support Scotland.

He is now raising money via NHS Tayside Charitable Foundation for Perth Royal Infirmary oncology department – where he is receiving regular treatment for his disorder named chronic myelogenous leukemia – and for Joscelyn’s Journey, supporting 18-year-old Joscelyn Kerr, a family friend who has been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour.

Proceeds raised from the rugby day will be split 50/50 between McConnell’s charities and the Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Society which Berry is backing.

On his condition, McConnell – who heads the Chris’s Munro Legends Challenge charity promoting the scaling of 12 Munros in 12 months - said: “It’s a form of blood cancer whereby two of my chromosomes dislocated and instead of re-attaching to themselves which they would normally do, two of mine got confused and linked onto each other by mistake.

"Because of that there’s an enzyme in my body which over-proliferates white blood cells so my body is filled with them and they’re immature, don’t function properly and affect my immune system.

"I take a tablet once a day which suppreses the problem, basically stopping the blood cells from over-proliferating and normalises everything.

"I’m in hematological remission but my cancerous cells are still pretty high, so treatment is ongoing to get that down.

"In terms of life expectancy, assuming we get treatment online, then there’s no reason I couldn’t live a normal life expectancy.

"But there’s obviously complications around that in terms of the tablets themselves have an impact.

"The initial symptoms were brain fog, fatigue and I used to get really bad night sweats whenever I was unwell but didn’t really put anything together.

"Then I found a large lump in my abdomen which turned out to be my spleen which was enlarged.

"Through that I went to the doctor thinking it was muscle tension or something.

"Then I got a blood test the next morning followed by a phonecall to say: ‘You need to come in’.

"I was booked in for the hematology department at Perth Royal Infirmary the following day, more tests and then I got confirmation of the cancer two days later, before treatment started three days after that.”

Please visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/krfc-charityrugbymatch?utm_term=jWy2bXx9P&fbclid=IwY2xjawG1U1NleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUMbHcgnaUUp-ZINPn10cSTPl2MkI-keGtK7K_m37NxEdu6Veeqx1maLaw_aem_cA5bCgNGf8fceEKWYGQsSQ to donate to McConnell and Berry’s charities.