SADDLEWORTH-BORN Super League referee Robert Hicks is literally putting his best foot forward, along with the rest of his family, after revealing his own coronavirus scare – one that left him praying he would not have to turn left.
For that would have meant fiancées Amy Fletcher’s mum Mandy was getting worse.
The official, who hails from Scouthead, found himself praying medics could treat Mandy after she was rushed to hospital after contracting the condition.
Now as she recovers, he and particularly his children Charlie and Eva are saying thank you to the NHS workers that helped Mandy with a one million step fundraising challenge.
“It really brought all this home,” said Hicks. “It was a crazy time.
“Mandy was shielding as she’d had pneumonia and bronchitis before but she got ill and we all suspected she had the coronavirus.
“Two weeks in, she went downhill and ended up not being able to really speak through coughing.
“We got her to a surgery and they just said, ‘We’re taking her to hospital by ambulance,’ we were completely in the dark for four or five hours.
“So she went to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, where they have a ward and you can turn left or right – right means people are getting better and left is going the other way.
“Happily, we never had to turn left.
“Mandy hadn’t been getting enough oxygen and as her and husband Steven had been shielding, I’d been getting their shopping.
“I dropped it off in the garden and saw her slumped in the chair, she looked dreadful.
“Thankfully, she was on oxygen for four days, then on the fifth she came off the oxygen and was allowed home.
“She still can’t do a great deal, if she does too much in the days she’s whacked in the evening. She still wasn’t 100 per cent three weeks after leaving hospital.”
Now Mandy, 54, is out of hospital and recovering, Hicks’ children Charlie and Eva are taking on a challenge of their own.
Over the course of May, they are walking 500,000 steps each to raise up an initial target of £2,000 for the Pinderfields Hospital. That works out at 16,000 a day.
And for Eva the first day was doubly momentous as it was her seventh birthday.
Her proud dad, who is doing some training at home to make sure he can restart as soon as the players he officiates, will be joining in.
Hicks, who now lives in West Yorkshire, added: “We’ve been trying to work our hour long walk into it and we’ve been coming up with routes to make sure they can get their steps in.
“In the morning, the kids and I do the Joe Wicks sessions and I’m doing what training I can at home. I’ll join in with them when I can too.
“They’re competitive and are already looking at who does the most steps every day. Eva is definitely the one who likes to keep active more.
“I’ll combine it with what I’m doing too, it’ll help make sure I’m ready to go when the players can play again.”
• You can donate to Charlie and Eva’s fundraising attempt at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/CharliEva2020
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