While most teams advertise the logo of their sponsoring company or a local place that has some significance on the front of their shirts, only a select few have ever displayed a charity. At Kirk Deighton Rangers AFC, we are very proud to spent many season's featuring the Prostate Cancer UK logo on our first team shirts as, not only is it an area that all men need to be aware of, but for the club, it has a very personal and human significance.

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Lloyd Pinder joined our junior teams at the age of seven, following a move into the area from his beloved Sunderland in 1977. Over the years, he graced the blue and white shirt, eventually making the transition from junior to senior football.

 

Travels and work took Lloyd away from Rangers on multiple occasions, and even though he played for several other teams around the country, his love for our club always saw him sign on as a squad player, and when time and location allowed he would pull on our shirt again and enter the fray.

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By his own assessment, he wasn’t the most skilful of individuals that ever played, but what he lacked in talent, he more than made up for in heart and courage. Every team has a player whose backstories include running through walls for the cause, or playing through injury and Lloyd certainly falls into that category for us. A common tale is a time he played the entire second half against Ripon Red Arrows with a fractured ankle and then fractured his wrist during the same match in the final minute going up for a corner!

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Throughout a forty-year playing career, success came multiple times, but in February 2016 Lloyd faced a new challenge when he was diagnosed as suffering from Prostate Cancer, a disease which will strike one in eight men and to be honest, it was news that shook the entire club!

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Not one to back down from a challenge, Lloyd battles this disease with the same conviction he showed on the pitch! He is committed to raising the profile of the superb work that Prostate Cancer UK does in fighting this terrible condition and, so far, he has completed in multiple “March for Men” walking alongside Jeff Stelling (Sky Football TV presenter) and Paul Merson (ex-Arsenal and Walsall footballer) in their well-publicised passages between football venues in the UK.

 

As a club, we are proud to support both Lloyd and Prostate Cancer UK in any way that we can and have donation tins for any change that you can spare. Please drop some coins in when you come to Barr Field and between us all, we can help find a treatment for this horrendous disease.

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Lloyd passed away on September 19th 2020. We have lost our friend, but his inspiration will live on.

 

It seems only right that he has the final say on this page, here is his message: