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Initiative by two former Albion youngsters is uniting the footballing community in the county and further afield.

Alex Stedman

2020-04-19T05:00:00Z

Scott Kirkwood and Kevin Keehan.

When Scott Kirkwood and Kevin Keehan, both formerly at Albion’s Centre of Excellence, spoke on the phone last month about an idea to get Sussex out and about during the nationwide lockdown, they couldn’t have foreseen how much of an impact it would have.

The challenge was simple - run or walk five kilometres during your permitted daily exercise and donate to a Just Giving Page for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS charitable funds.

The current total raised is approaching £40,000 - the original target was £3,000.

“The idea really just began with a phone call between Kevin and I about what we’d been up to in self-isolation and we both said we’d been going out running most days,” Scott said.

“We thought we could get something going for the wonderful NHS while staying active during this difficult time.

“We both knew a lot of people in the Sussex footballing community having played both with and against a lot of them, and it just took off from there.

Kirkwood played for a number of across Sussex including Crawley Town, Lewes, Bognor Regis, Horsham and Burgess Hill.

Keehan headed north to Bradford City as a scholar before returning to play County League football. He is now the manager of AFC Varndeanians, who play their home matches at Withdean Stadium.

“Our original target has now been surpassed and the amount raised so far is beyond what we ever imagined, and hopefully it will continue to grow,” Scott said.

“We’ve actually had people coming to us and say that they’ve started running again for the first time in 15 years and they’re really enjoying it, so it’s also helped to spread some positivity for people and got them active again and made them feel better both physically and mentally.

“Football is irrelevant at the moment but there are so many good characters in the game and this has just reinforced that. It’s amazing what people can do when they come together and work hard.”

Former Albion faces aplenty have joined in the challenge, as well many players from far and wide.

“We had Adam El-Abd do it and that was great because he was in my age group when I was down at the Brighton Centre of Excellence,” Scott continued.

“Kerry Mayo, Dean Cox, Tommy Fraser and even Russell Martin and Stephen Warnock have got involved too so it’s not just been limited to footballers with connections to Sussex.

“Some of the Lionesses have taken part as well, and then even passed it on to the kids at the football academies that they run so they do it too.

“We just want to raise as much as we can. When we hit £20,000 we were stunned, but we thought let’s keep it going.

“Schools have got involved and are challenging their kids, and different clubs are putting their names forward to challenge their players to do it as well.

“The youngest was seven who did it with his Dad, and we had a 60-year-old take part. The message from Kevin and I is thank you. It’s just amazing where we are now when you think back to our original phone call.”