Keeping the dream alive

Apr 6 2008 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

EVEN at first glance, Lee Curry defies convention. Standing barely 5ft 6in in his socks, his height should be obstacle enough to his ambitions as a goalkeeper.

Look closer and you realise he epitomises the traits of football’s loneliest profession . . . a goalkeeper has to be brave and a bit crazy too.

You have to be braver still when you’ve got no fingertips, no toes, and a leg that’s been pinned straight. Oh, and when you’re profoundly deaf, like Lee, 21.

Yet Lee, also a trainee painter and decorator, doesn’t regard himself as particularly brave or special. His team-mates at Rutherford AFC — of the Tyneside Amateur League — think otherwise.

Not that his exploits end with Rutherford Reserves. On Sundays he turns out for Whitley Bay Deaf FC in North Tyneside, and he was recently invited for trials for the England deaf team ahead of the inaugural Deaf World Cup this summer.

Tight finances and his loyalty to Rutherford — the trials were held on a Saturday — meant he didn’t go. But he is hopeful of being asked again to get the chance to add another chapter to a remarkable story of triumph against the odds which began in the summer of 1987 when Lee was six-and-a-half- months old.

Rushed to Shotley Bridge Hospital in County Durham, he was diagnosed with meningitis and septicaemia. His first victory was in surviving the night, with his family having been warned to expect the worst. But the war was anything but over.

Speaking to me in sign language through his pal and Whitley Bay team-mate Jason St Lawrence, Lee explained: “I got transferred to a hospital in Newcastle because I had suffered kidney failure, then I developed gangrene in my arms and legs.

“After they had worked on my kidneys, the doctors decided to leave things for a while. The blood-flow returned but then stopped and ended up not getting to my fingertips and toes. So I lost all of those.”

Lee had lost his hearing too.

He said: “When I was a bit better, they offered me a cochlear implant. But my mam refused. She asked the doctors to let nature take its course. I’m so happy she did.”

Jason explained: “People can reject cochlear implants and they can leave you in a kind of halfway house. You can’t really hear properly but you don’t learn to sign. And learning to sign is a big part of becoming part of the community.”

Over the next few years, as well as overcoming his kidney problems, Lee learned to walk without toes and communicate without hearing.

Then came his first glimpse of Shay Given throwing himself around the Newcastle United goal . . . a revelation. Lee plucked up the courage to join Consett YMCA Juniors FC.

Lee recalled: “I first played in a proper game for Consett Juniors when I was 13.

“I had no experience and it was difficult to move quickly or even to stand. I found it difficult to keep my balance.

“But things got better quite quickly the more often I played. I improved, became more confident. I won the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award in the 2003/04 season.

“Off the pitch, the other kids were brilliant with me in the end, but at first it was difficult. No one was talking to me and I felt like an outsider.

“But the manager kept encouraging me and, after the third or fourth game, kids started to talk to me, say ‘hello’ and ask me if I was all right.”

He was also thriving at the Northern Counties School For the Deaf in Jesmond, Newcastle.

Lee said: “We used to play five-a-side every day and would go down for competitions in Derby against other deaf schools. We were four-time champions!”

From there, at the age of 17, it was a natural progression for Lee to join Newcastle United Deaf FC. Fate, however, was about to set him yet another challenge.

Lee said: “I joined them in 2004 but the manager, Darren O’Dowd, wouldn’t pick me for the first team. He told me I was too young. And then I had to have the operation.”

That operation was the painstaking and intensely painful process of re-aligning his right leg and foot.

Lee said: “I was having problems with my balance. My leg was putting pressure on my ankle and twisting it, so they had to do the surgery. It’s straight now. My foot is flat on the floor and it’s fine.”

But it has taken nine months of gruelling rehabilitation work . . . not to mention getting used to having one leg slightly shorter than the other.

When he returned to football, Newcastle United Deaf FC had become Whitley Bay Deaf FC and Darren O’Dowd deemed Lee ready for the first team. Lee said: “I was over the moon when he told me. It was one of the happiest days of my life, especially after so many painful months.”

He joined Rutherford AFC after catching the eye of its director of football, Steve Coxon.

With Whitley Bay sweeping all before them, winning the England Deaf Championship North v South play-off — and the English Deaf Cup twice — Lee is in clover.

Yet while this is one 21-year-old with special reason to count his blessings, he gives so much to so many in return.

Jason St Lawrence summed it up as well as anyone: “Lee’s just an inspiration. He’s always smiling, always positive. It lifts your mood just being around him.

“And he’s a bloody good goalkeeper.”