Former Scotland international football player Steven Caldwell surprised a patient at Strathcarron Hospice this week with a video message following a special request from staff.

When Albert Newton, known to friends and family as ‘Eddie’ shared with staff details about his life, including that he was a huge Sunderland FC fan, Hospice team member Katy Whitelaw reached out to a childhood friend - former Scotland international and Sunderland FC defender Steven Caldwell - to ask if he could send Eddie a special message.

Steven, who grew up in Stirling but now lives in Canada, was happy to help and surprise Eddie.

Steven said: “Having lived locally I am aware of the incredible work that Strathcarron Hospice does. It was my pleasure to help create this special surprise for Eddie and it’s great to hear it has brought him some happiness.

“Sunderland FC is a club that is still close to my heart. I loved my time there and the fans are brilliant.”

Eddie’s nephew Ian Renton said: “This was brilliant of the Hospice to help arrange this for Eddie. He really appreciated it. Big thank you to Stevie for this - I still remember his goal against Leicester that got us promoted in 2005!”

 

Katy, said: “It was lovely for us to be able to help arrange this for Eddie and share this happy moment with him and capture it for his family. We are very grateful to Steven for taking the time out to do this for one of our patients.

 

“We talk to the people we support about making every moment count. As part of goal setting we ask ‘what matters to you?’. Supporting Sunderland has been a large part of Eddie’s life. To see the joy it brought him was a special moment for everyone in the room.”

 

Former Wallace High School pupil Caldwell won 12 caps for the Scotland national team and played over 300 league matches in his career, primarily in the top three tiers of English football. This included appearances for Newcastle United, Blackpool, Bradford, Leeds, Sunderland, Burnley, Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City and Toronto.

Since retiring from playing, he has coached the Canada Men’s National Team and been working as a Major League Soccer analyst for sports channel TSN in Canada.

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