{"id":370,"date":"2014-10-21T15:45:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedin\/?p=370"},"modified":"2020-03-15T00:24:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-15T00:24:15","slug":"a-sporting-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/2014\/10\/21\/a-sporting-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sporting Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (October 13<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> 2014)<\/span><\/p>\n

Injustice<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CIMG9233\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over a quarter of a century ago Michael O\u02bcBrien was wrenched from his family. He suffered a grave miscarriage of justice that robbed him and his family of more than a decade of his life. He always knew that he was innocent of the robbery and murder of Cardiff newspaper vendor, Phillip Saunders \u2013 it should have been obvious to others too. During the dark days of his wrongful imprisonment \u2013 he was wrongfully convicted along with Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall \u2013 O\u02bcBrien needed an outlet.<\/span><\/p>\n

He found it in football. He was a Cardiff City and Wales fan. For 90 minutes every weekend he could forget his woes and support his team. In his mind he was on the terraces willing his team on. It helped him cope. O\u02bcBrien was one of the main inspirations for both the Fitted-In Project<\/strong> and Empower-Sport<\/strong> launching our project <\/span>A Sporting Chance of After-care<\/b><\/i><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CIMG9221\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inspiration<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Football had given O\u02bcBrien hope when he needed it most. He survived the miscarriage of justice and he fought tirelessly for others \u2013 he still does through the Dylan O\u02bcBrien Foundation.1<\/sup><\/a> Victims of miscarriages of justice are largely forgotten about by society. The euphoria of their release, even in high profile cases quickly wears off. Support and assistance was hard to come by. Many retreat into their shells again unwilling to engage with people who do not and cannot understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CIMG9226\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But football had helped once. Perhaps it could again. Not only had it helped O\u02bcBrien, but anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and his comrades on the infamous Robben Island, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Football Unites<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We decided that perhaps football could help again. We approached the Football Association of Wales to provide the practical support that our project needed. They readily agreed. It was fitting that O\u02bcBrien was the first person to be helped under our scheme. Along with a trusted person \u2013 an essential part of the scheme \u2013 O\u02bcBrien was provided with seats to support Wales against Cyprus. He enjoyed the experience greatly including the result as Wales beat Cyprus 2-1 to remain top of Group B. It helped him too<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSatish should be commended for setting up this project, which can benefit those who have suffered a miscarriage of justice\u201d, O\u02bcBrien said. \u201cI thoroughly enjoyed the Wales v Cyprus game and I am extremely grateful to Satish and the FAW for taking part in this project and hope they continue to support this in the future\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/a> The Foundation was established in memory of O\u02bcBrien\u02bcs son whose death aged two could and should have been prevented. Together with his wife Claire, they campaign for greater awareness of the condition that Dylan suffered from and to help others. Dylan suffered from a rare, but tragically undiagnosed condition <\/span>Mucopollysaccharidosis<\/span><\/span><\/span> (see <\/span>www.thedylanobrienfoundation.com<\/a> <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>for further information on the <\/span>Dylan O\u02bcBrien Foundation<\/b><\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (October 13th 2014) Injustice Over a quarter of a century ago Michael O\u02bcBrien was [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[485,636],"tags":[657,475,658,659,660,661,662,663,311,65,664,665,124,666,667],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1736,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions\/1736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}