Cobham hosted three very special guests at training on Thursday afternoon, as Professor Ray Powles (pictured with Frank Lampard) was joined by two young supporters, Macauley Rogers and Joshua Eliot-Lockhart, to watch the first team put through their paces and then meet the players.
Macauley (pictured below with David Luiz) has a heart condition and participates on the Chelsea Foundation’s disability programme, while 11-year old Joshua suffers from leukaemia.
Professor Powles was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the Pride of Britain awards, along with his twin brother Trevor, in recognition of their extraordinary 50-year career dedicated to fighting cancer. Powles’ innovative work tackling leukaemia and myeloma has saved thousands of lives during an extraordinary career, during which he and his brother carried out the first bone marrow transplant in Europe 40 years ago.
Powles began his career at the Royal Marsden Hospital on the Fulham Road, so understandably has a passion for all things Chelsea, as he explained after speaking to players and getting autographs.
‘I’ve been a Chelsea fan for a long time and it’s just amazing to be here.
‘Meeting Frank Lampard and John Terry is more exciting to me than meeting the Prime Minister, who gave my brother and I our Pride of Britain awards!
‘Chelsea are a brilliant team to be following. The club do a great job with charity, while the players bring a whole different dimension to life, otherwise it’s just work. The whole package that comes out of Chelsea is really quite special. It’s been a fantastic day.’