Today’s match mascots are Adversity United FC, the 2017 Gambaru Adversity Awards Community Club of the Year. The club’s founder, Cameron Osburn, is a graduate of the Awards mentoring programme and the Gambaru Adversity Awards Achiever of the Year.
A student at Harrogate Grammar School, Cameron has cerebral palsy. He was often disappointed at not being selected for the teams he played for because of his condition. So he started Adversity United for 6-12 year old boys and girls with various learning and physical disabilities with the aim of helping them boost their self-confidence.
As well as being a qualified football coach, Cameron holds a black belt in Silat, an Indonesian martial art. He is also a member of the North East & Yorkshire Cerebral Palsy football team, the current national champions, and he has had trials with the England Cerebral Palsy development programme.
Cameron is keen that the Adversity United model be adopted in other towns and cities throughout the country to give lots of other disabled youngsters the same opportunity to thrive and grow as his players have enjoyed.