KIRSTIE LEVELL wears the “special” number 28 at Leicester in a moving tribute to her older brother Dan, who died five years ago.
In an interview with the BBC, the former Everton ace opened up about her brother’s sudden heart attack on 28 September, 2015 – a year after his shattering bowel cancer diagnosis.
Kirstie Levell wears the “special” number 28 at Leicester in tribute to her older brother Dan, who died five years ago.Credit: Getty Images – Getty
Dan suffered a sudden heart attack on 28 September, 2015 – a year after his shattering bowel cancer diagnosis.Credit: Instagram / @kirstielevell
Dan was born with epilepsy which left him unable to speak, but he could still understand “pretty much everything”.
Their father, Shaun, cared for him full-time, having quit his day job.
Levell told the BBC: “The 28th is my mum’s birthday and I found that really mad,
“Dan had this terminal illness for such a long time and it was like he waited for her birthday to come round before saying, ‘right, that’s it now’.”
The Levells were a family unit, and they loved taking Dan to theme parks to ride rollercoasters and on dream trips to meet Disney characters in Paris, when they were kids.
Kirstie continued to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional footballer and Shaun would always fly out to England camps to show support.
She added: “Dan was my dad’s best mate as he had someone to travel with.
“The most difficult thing was when Dan fell ill, there was always a decision over whether my dad should come and support me or stay and look after my brother. We worked around it.”
Kirstie was hit with a huge blow when her dad, Shaun, was diagnosed with cancer in 2019Credit: Instagram / @kirstielevell
Levell was studying at university and playing for the Toffees when Dan was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
She was told it would all be fine, but chemotherapy failed and her brother’s shattering illness became terminal.
The Leicester goalkeeper said: “I just thought, ‘no, this can’t be happening.’
“I still carried on with my football though. Even the day after he died, I went to training at Everton. He passed away in the house so I felt the worst place to be in was the house.”
But Levell was left broken when her dad was hit with mouth cancer in 2019.
She continued: “That was an even bigger challenge for me. I just thought, ‘not again. I can’t lose another one.’
“My brother and my dad were the two who always came with me to football so I couldn’t lose them both,
“It was a hard one to take. I took him to his hospital appointments and the day he went in for his operation, I was there to pick him up. He wanted to get on with it and didn’t want a fuss.”
Thankfully, Shaun has recovered – and Kirstie, who arrived at Leicester this summer, chose a new number 28 as tribute to her beloved family.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
