WARD’S GRATITUDE TO FANS

Darcy Ward has paid tribute to the thousands of fans who came out and supported him at the benefit meeting in Torun, Poland in April following the release of final figures for the event which raised almost £4,000 in admission money.

“I think it’s incredible how the fans have stuck by me and pulled together to give such amazing support,” says the wheelchair-bound former racer.

Having only recently seen the analysis, he has revealed that a massive crowd of over 11,000 people packed into the purpose built stadium to honour their former hero where the event was also streamed live to an on-line TV audience to raise additional funds.

“I want to say thanks to all those fans who turned out for me at Torun; they were incredible and I am so grateful to them and I can’t thank our European merchandise team enough. They have done an excellent job of keeping my name in the front line.

As a result, fans bought merchandise and the live streaming in their hundreds, netting around £8,000 from those two things alone,” explains Ward. “And now the figures are in, we can reveal the meeting itself actually generated a total of just under £4,000 on its own.

All the riders donated their time for free and I am just so grateful to every one of them for their loyalty and generosity the thought that everyone pulled together for me is amazing.

The amounts raised will go together into the Foundation Fund and, of course, help in getting me settled at our new house which needed to be altered to suit the chair.

It also goes towards my continuing rehabilitation at ‘Making Strides’ where I am doing more and more to try to get better independence. We are lucky to have this centre reasonably close, as it is the only one in Australia that is suitable for my needs, but all these things come at a cost.

Of course, it’s not just the Polish fans that have supported me; it’s been a Worldwide thing and makes me feel very humble.

Poole really got the ball rolling in October and I am so grateful to Matt Ford and everyone there for all that they did. It’s incredible to think that in that one meeting at Poole around 2,500 fans got together and with the sponsors chipping in as well they raised well over £50,000 for the foundation fund on the day.

In Australia and Sweden the clubs were awesome too. They just really got behind the whole thing and, again, I just can’t thank them enough. In Sweden they raised around £25k at last year’s meeting and here in Australia they added another £17k.

Ward knows that these injections of cash are vital to his future. With no prospect of a return to the track on the horizon, it will be his sole source of income and support for life and at twenty four years of age he will need substantial support.

With plans already underway to visit the UK, Poland and Sweden in the coming months, Ward is looking forward to meeting the fans again and being able to pass on his thanks in person very soon.