An emotional tribute game has been staged in memory of a County Durham footballer who died on the pitch after having a ‘medical episode’ during a match earlier this year.
Father of three Darren Scott died on Saturday, February 12, during an away fixture between his Cobblers Hall over 40s team and South Shields Catholic Club after having an unexpected medical emergency.
At the time, the 40-year-old, from Newton Aycliffe, was helped by his teammates, opposition players and the emergency services, who all heroically battled to save his life, but he was pronounced dead at the scene – due to the absence of a defibrillator system nearby.
Read more: Tribute match played for Aycliffe player who died on the pitch
In the five months that have passed since the beloved County Durham footballer’s death, his family and former football club have raised fundraising and awareness campaigns to purchase more lifesaving defibrillators for County Durham sports clubs.
Straight after his death, more than £22,000 was raised to help support the family; wife Donna, and his three children: Declan, 17, Noah, 15 and Layna, 9 – showing the popularity of Mr Scott throughout the community.
On Saturday (July 9) – in memory of Mr Scott, Cobblers Hall played against South Shields Catholic Club in a repeat of February’s tragic match.
In what was an emotional and raw occasion, both sets of players contested a friendly game for the ‘Darren Scott Memorial Trophy’; a match that will be played each year as a tribute to Darren.
The game ended up 3-1 to Cobblers Hall.
Mark Preston, one of Mr Scott’s best friends and former teammates, has been a driving force in the campaigning and fundraising for defibrillators since the death of his friend.
He said: “The match was supposed to be played at South Shields, where the incident happened in February, but they couldn’t stage it, so we had it at Cobblers Hall.
“Since Darren’s death, South Shields has been amazing – they’ve sent texts, they’ve been great to us – they asked about Darren’s partner Donna and staged applause before and after the match.
“It was nice to win the match for Darren – it was very emotional and the whole team had Darren in their thoughts throughout the game.”
Alongside the memorial match for Darren, there was a positive update about South Shields Catholic Club set to receive a defibrillator, which could potentially stop future ‘medical episodes’ at the football ground – something that Mr Preston has called “an amazing development”.
He added: “The more defibrillators we can have at the over 40s level, the better. We’re starting to bring our campaign for defibrillators forward and getting the lifesaving piece of equipment in County Durham.”
Moving forward, a charity tournament will be held on July 23 in memory of Darren, which will look to raise even more money for vital defibrillators, while a charity football memorabilia auction will be staged in October, which is looking to do the same.
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