Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds will complete their takeover of Wrexham, subject to league and FA approval; McElhenney has decided to donate £6,000 to a Wrexham fan that has been attempting to raise funds in order to adapt his bathroom to be suitable for his disabilities
Friday 20 November 2020 11:32, UK
A Wrexham fan says he feels like "he won the lottery" after the club's prospective new co-owner Rob McElhenney donated £6,000 to his online cause.
Life-long Wrexham fan Aiden Stott suffers from cerebral palsy and was looking to adapt his bathroom to be suitable for his disabilities.
After setting up an online fundraising page, Aiden and sister Cheryl were shocked to wake up on Wednesday morning with the £6,000 they had been quoted for the work donated by McElhenney just two days after his joint ownership takeover of National League side Wrexham with Ryan Reynolds was confirmed.
"It's just unreal, it's amazing it really is," Aiden told Sky Sports News.
"I was speechless at the time and have been for days!"
Aiden moved from Wrexham to be closer to Cheryl in Manchester due to cuts to his care and so his sister could visit him and help him more often.
She said Wrexham's new Hollywood owners had already shown their dedication to the fans and acted with the community spirit she recognises as a life-long Wrexham fan.
She said: "In terms of actions speaking louder than words, they've hit the nail on the head with proving themselves straight away.
"You hear people say they're going to do things like that, but to do it straight away, they haven't even got to work properly with the club.
"To hear the plea of a devoted Wrexham fan, when we didn't even get in touch with them directly is amazing.
"It was through the fan pages how Rob [McElhenney] saw it. Even if he had just shared it, that would've been astounding, never would we have dreamt he'd donate to it.
"The donations are incredible, even if it's been £5 or £10. It's incredible.
"It's not just the new owners, it's the fans, they pulled rank to look after one of their own. That's the spirit of a community football club. I hope Rob and Ryan see that, that they've bought into something special."
One of those groups was the Wrexham Disabled Supporters Association, and committee member Steven Gilbert says they have been in touch with Reynolds and McElhenney about accessibility and inclusion at the Racecourse Ground.
He said: "Rob messaged us, after we sent him a private message to tell him what we were and what we do, and we told him we'd be keen to find out their thoughts on accessibility and inclusion.
"They agreed it would be a high priority for them.
"There's a lot of things we do well, we have a wheelchair viewing platform at executive box level, we played the first game of autism friendly football in 2013, the stadium is autism friendly every week and we have audio descriptive commentary at games."
On the donation from McElhenney, Steven said: "It was a massive shock really. Our group tweeted them in the hope they'd retweet the message.
"We went to bed that night and woke up to discover Rob had paid the lot, stunning really."
"We would like further wheelchair viewing platforms as we still have a lot of front row seats for wheelchair users who get wet," Steven added. "We want platform viewing for wheelchair users who can be part of the crowd and stay dry."
But the implications of McElhenney and Reynolds' ownership have already started, in the form of another generous offer, this time from Reynolds.
Steven said: "Ryan keeps sending the local pubs bottles of gin!
"They've got 18 bottles each, and all three pubs are giving the proceeds to charity. There's a massive feel-good factor in the town. We're all so excited to see them come in."
