What we do
Helping Former Players
It says much about Paul Knight that when you ask him how he's getting on, his first response is to point out there are people worse off than him.The former Wales prop has been through a lot since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the late 1990s and is now only able to move around using crutches or a wheelchair. But he remains uncomplaining about his lot and spends much of his time helping others.
He works as an employment consultant in the Rhondda, working with disadvantaged people and the long-term unemployed. And he's also involved in charity work, having visited Romania as recently as 2001, when he got around with a walking stick, giving out information on MS. So, if anyone deserves to be one of the first recipients of funding from the Welsh Rugby International Players Benevolent Association, it is Knight.
The charity has been set by a group of trustees, including greats of the game such as Gareth Edwards, JJ Williams, John Dawes and JPR Williams, plus entertainer Max Boyce, to help ex-internationals who have fallen on hard times or are in need of specialist medical assistance.
Following a series of fund-raising events, it has come up with £5,500 to provide Knight with two wheelchairs - one for getting around the house and one for "valleys terrain" as he puts it - and a stair lift in his house. "This will make a massive difference to my life," said Knight. "At the moment, it's the mobility side of things that is the biggest difficulty I have"
"Rugby gave me a lot as a player - and now it's giving to me again. I'm very grateful to the association for their help."
Knight, who played for Aberavon, Pontypridd and Treorchy, won five caps between 1990-91 while at Sardis Road, before hanging up his boots in 1994. Four years later he was diagnosed with MS.
"The first major symptom was when I lost the sight in my left eye in 1998," said Knight. "Unbeknown to me, I'd been feeling the effects of MS prior to that when I was still playing.
"I was having numbness, weakness and back pain, but they were things I was putting down to rugby injuries.
"As a prop, you expect pain in your back. When I was diagnosed it was obviously a shock, but you just have to get on with life and adapt to the situation you find yourself in.
"Knight, now 45, is quick to pay tribute to the support he has received from his wife Jennifer and his 16-year-old daughter Nadia as he's come to terms with his condition.
"I couldn't have done it without them," he said. "They have been superb." Knight is one of the three initial recipients of support totalling some £14,000 from the newly-launched Benevolent Association, along with former Wales and Lions hooker Jeff Young OBE, and ex-Llanelli, Wales and Lions centre Roy Bergiers.
The 61-year-old Young, who won 23 caps between 1968 and 1973, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, while Bergiers, 53, has endured knee problems since suffering a badly broken leg in 1977.
The association is providing £2,000 to pay for a specialist carer to provide support to Young's wife, Pat, and has earmarked £6,000 for Bergiers to have an operation on his knee.
Bergiers said, "I'm quite taken aback that I've been chosen. My ailments are not as great as Paul's or Jeff's." Bergiers paid tribute to the part his former Wales and Scarlets team-mate JJ Williams had played in getting the former players' association - and its benevolent arm - off the ground.
"John nagged Ray Gravell and myself for years to give him the ball, but thank God he is a nag because through his nagging we have got the association up and running," he said. "I am sure when people get to hear of the good work of the association then there will be lots more players coming out of the woodwork who are suffering quietly in their corners and getting on with life and don't moan and groan."
Explaining the thinking behind the Benevolent Association, committee member Williams said, "Ours may be a very proud group of people, who have been privileged to have worn the red jersey for Wales, but we are not indestructible.
"In fact, we are more human than many people imagine and, as the game develops, we can envisage more and more ex-players requiring medical care and assistance as they grow older."
Written by Simon Thomas, The Western Mail
