When Gloucester star Billy Twelvetrees heard Ed Slater had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease his first thought was to pull the plug on his own testimonial year.
The pair are team mates dating back to their time at Leicester and Twelvetrees could not imagine enjoying himself with his great pal “going through such a tragic time”.
He sat down with wife Georgie and told her he felt too awkward to go ahead with it. All they could think about was “being there” for Slater and his young family.
His reaction was mirrored across rugby and more than £200,000 poured in as a show of love and support for the 34-year old, wife Jo and their three children.
“That feeling of helplessness is the hardest thing,” said Twelvetrees. “I have this longing to do more.
“The unknown of what Ed is going through is scary. How quickly he could or might not deteriorate. It’s the worst kind of illness, horrendous."
After careful thought the former England centre realised he could use his testimonial as a vehicle to raise funds and awareness for MND, an affliction that has disproportionately affected rugby over other sports.
He embarked on a 350-mile cycle ride with Slater and other team mates before announcing proceeds from his testimonial match would be shared with his friend’s 4Ed fund-raising campaign.
“When the news came out it really hit our group, especially the senior players who have known him for years," said Twelvetrees. "Ed said to us all he wants is for it to stay as normal as it can be between us. To crack on. To keep giving him s**t. So that’s what we are doing.
"Certainly when we did that three-day bike ride we were 10 lads just having a good time, but the rest of us knew at the end that while we would go back to our families and wake up in the morning and be pretty healthy, Ed would still have this brutal condition.”
Rugby has a well-earned reputation for looking after its own and even at a time of significant hardship for the sport, the warmth towards Slater is unmistakable.
Leicester coach and rugby league legend Kevin Sinfield, who has already raised more than £5 million for MND research in support of his great pal and former team mate Rob Burrow, aims to run seven ultra marathons in seven days in November.
Saracens last Saturday dedicated their game with Gloucester to Slater. Owen Farrell and Jamie George signed and raffled their jerseys and the man himself was guest of honour.
“Sarries doing what they did was great and I’ve had messages from arch-rivals saying ‘anything we can do, let us know’," said Gloucester boss George Skivington. "The rugby community has shown how strong it is and continues to do so.”
Rugby has faced calls to commission urgent research to ascertain if there is a link between concussive head injuries and an increased risk of MND.
"I'm learning to live with the disease," Slater told the BBC. "That's challenging at times, the impact it has on the family is difficult. Day to day it's not impacting me hugely, but there are small signs of things to come."
To support Ed Slater, visit https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/gloucesterrugby-4ed
