A Cardiff dad has responded to the "overwhelming" reaction he's received on social media after sharing a video showing football fans singing with his son ahead of Wales' game on Saturday. Mike Hancock had always dreamed of taking his 10-year-old son Joe to his first Wales football match at Cardiff City Stadium.
Joe was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) when he was four, which is a genetic condition that causes tumours to grow on the nerve. The young football fan is currently undergoing his third round of chemotherapy for a brain tumour and often becomes tired due to his condition. This has meant that Joe has missed out on a few international football matches over the years as they frequently take place in the evenings and during the week.
But with Wales' recent game taking place on a Saturday afternoon the father and son were in luck and got to see Robert Page's men equalise with Belgium in a dramatic head-to-head. A few hours prior to the game however Mike decided to take Joe to his favourite place before any football match, which was Womanby Street. Amid the celebration and chanting a group of men noticed Joe and helped him with his singing. A video documenting the special moment has taken social media by storm.
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According to Mike the response to Joe and the video has been "lovely" and added even more excitement to an already memorable day for the pair. "Joe has wanted to go to a Wales game for a quite a while," he said.
"He goes to watch Cardiff City quite regularly – he’s a season ticketholder. But Wales games have never really fallen kindly to him in regards to times and days. He’s actually undergoing chemotherapy at the moment for a brain tumour which has made him lose his sight and it affects his mobility. He’s not always in a wheelchair but now and then he tires very easily and it's needed.
"So with it falling on a Saturday, he would need the Sunday to get over it so that’s why we took him that day. Gareth Bale is his favourite player – he wanted to see Gareth Bale play. The opportunity was never really possible until this weekend.
"He knows all the songs – or the radio edit of all the songs shall we say and without the swear words. I wanted to take him to Womanby Street – it’s where I go and it honestly has the best atmosphere before any game. It’s almost carnival-like – it’s an event on its own.
"I wanted to take him there and obviously with his sight it would just be the noises, the sounds, and smells he would pick up on. We were just outside the City Arms pub – there was a lot of singing going on and a group of lads from Ynysybwl Football Club singing.
"I kept him there so he could sort of hear them singing. And then it went quiet for a moment Joe sort of broke into a song on his own. One of the lads from the club came over and started chatting to him asking him who his favourite player was and things like that. Then he went off and got all the people to gather around Joe.
"One of the lads, who was to the left of him, was asking Joe which songs were we going to sing next and so on. The video was only a snippet but they were there for ages with him singing different songs. And you can see from the video Joe was nearly bouncing - he was loving it. It was really special for him and that was touching. They took their time to do that and they didn’t have to."
Capturing the heartfelt moment on his phone Mike decided to share the video on Twitter with the caption: "This is what it's all about, Joe's first Wales game". The post has so far garnered 276,000 views, with the likes of Fifa, Hal Robson-Kanu, and FAW chief executive Noel Mooney responding to it.
"Joe has that effect on people – he’s infectious," Mike explained. "He’s so polite – wherever he goes he draws people to him. When people start talking to him – he’s an engaging person, he’s very knowledgeable about football, and he can carry a conversation with anyone about the game.
"He was diagnosed with the genetic condition neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) when he was four. He’s actually on his third round of chemo as the tumour has started to grow again. He lost his sight completely about three years ago when he was around six or seven. He has been battling with it his whole life since he was four. But to Joe it’s just his thing – he gets on with it."
Mike added that football "meant everything" to Joe. He said: "Cardiff City as a club has done so much for him. They’ve got a disability team that plays on a Sunday and he gets involved with that. As a club, they’re a real big-family club.
"And that’s the whole narrative of football – clubs and football fans have really changed, especially in Wales. We are starting to see Welsh football fans and Welsh football for what it is – the culture that it is.
"It’s become accessible to everyone. We’ve always tried to look for his thing that he can latch on to and enjoy – we’ve tried rugby and other sports but football has really captured him. He loves it, he breathes it.
"He’s bouncing that we are going to the World Cup. And on top of that he’s convinced himself that Gareth Bale is joining Cardiff City as well. We’ll just have to wait and see with that one, and I’m trying to manage his expectations at the moment.
"Once it’s all settled down I'm going to have a read of all the comments on Twitter and see what people have said. It’s so nice to see people supporting Joe – both on Womanby Street, in the stadium, and virtually.
"It just comes to show what a safe and friendly atmosphere football is – there’s a big family feel as well, you feel comfortable in that atmosphere, you feel safe taking your kids there. I recommend anyone to take their kids to a football match because it’s such a lovely experience."
