Prince William arranged for a grieving schoolboy to meet his football hero in a VIP trip after bonding with the 11-year-old over losing his mother.
Deacon Glover, 11, from Burnley, lost his mother, Grace Taylor, 28, on January 15 2021 after she was found dead by her partner following an overdose on heroin and methadone, as well as prescribed medication.
Last month, the Duke, 39, and Duchess of Cambridge, 40, spent about 15 minutes talking to the schoolboy during a visit to Church on the Street in Burnley, a centre that helps people struggling with poverty, homelessness, addiction or other problems.
During the visit, Prince William, who lost his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, when he was 15, told Deacon ‘I know how you feel’ and ‘it gets easier.’
Meanwhile the royal also bonded with the boy over his football strip, which featured the name of Nick Pope, asking if he wanted to meet the Burnley goalkeeper and adding: ‘We’ll see what we can do.’
It has now emerged that the Duke arranged for Deacon and his family to have a VIP visit to the football club last weekend, where the youngster met with his hero Pope.
Prince William, 39, arranged for a grieving Deacon Glover, 11, from Burnley, to meet his football hero Nick Pope in a VIP trip after bonding with the 11-year-old over losing his mother
During the visit last month, William chatted to Deacon about football before he promised the youngster to see if he could arrange for a trip for him to meet the goalkeeper.
The Duke leaned over to him and asked: ‘Would you like to see Nick Pope, yeah?’
Deacon and his family watched the game in the director’s box where they met with club chairman Alan Pace.
The 11-year-old then met with Pope, with the pair chatting in the stands at Premier League Burnley’s Turf Moor stadium before walking together on the pitch.
During the visit last month, Prince William , who lost his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, when he was 15, told Deacon ‘I know how you feel’ and ‘it gets easier’
He gave the 11-year-old his gloves as well as the shirt he wore for the match, signing it with the message ‘Never Give Up’.
His grandmother Carole told the Burnley Express: ‘Everyone was so welcoming to us, they really couldn’t do enough for us. It was a special day, one that we will always remember.’
She said watching Deacon meet his footballing hero had moved her to tears, while Pope also encouraged the youngster with his own sporting achievements.
Local pastor Mick Fleming, who helped facilitate the initial meeting with Prince William and joined Deacon yesterday, said the encounter would be ‘life changing’ for the boy.
Deacon lost his mother, Grace Taylor, 28, on January 15 2021 after she was found dead by her partner following an overdose on heroin and methadone, as well as prescribed medication
He said: ‘This is going to be life changing for Deacon. This will help him to break the cycle of life that’s been around him.
‘This was something so special, and I think what the prince has done has given him hope for the future.
‘It’s phenomenal, what he has done, as it’s not just meeting a footballer, it’s a lot, lot deeper – it will help him.
He added: ‘The prince has followed through with everything he said in the conversation that he had with him. He has honoured it, and that’s amazing.’
The Duke arranged for him and his family to have a VIP visit to the football club, where the youngster met with Pope (pictured)
Pope gave the 11-year-old his gloves as well as the shirt he wore for the match, signing it with the message ‘Never Give Up’
At an inquest at Accrington Town Hall in July, Coroner Richard Taylor told how Deacon’s mother Grace had been taking drugs with boyfriend Sean Hargreaves in a separate room before he found her body and was unable to rouse her.
According to the Lancashire Telegraph, Sean tried to contact Grace’s grandmother Carole and went to her house for help, before returning home and calling 999.
A toxicology report revealed Grace had potentially fatal levels of heroin in her system as well as methadone, mirtazipine, olanzapine, cocaine and amphetamine.
During the visit last month, William, an Aston Villa fan, chatted to the 11-year-old schoolboy about football, but the youngster, who was wearing a Burnley shirt, seemed unimpressed at first.
Deacon’s grandmother Carole said watching Deacon meet his footballing hero had moved her to tears, while Pope also encouraged the youngster with his own sporting achievements (left and right)
Deacon and his family watched the game in the director’s box where they met with club chairman Alan Pace
‘He thought it was a footballer coming here so he was gutted when he found out it was William and Kate,’ one volunteer at the centre said.
But gradually he became chattier, as William asked him about Burnley’s prospects and pointed out that his father, the Prince of Wales, had come out as a supporter of the club after directing some of his charities to work in the town.
‘I only found out a few years ago that my dad is a Burnley fan,’ he said.
He told Deacon and his great-grandmother that he hoped his own children would follow him in supporting Aston Villa. ‘I need to spread the love a bit,’ he said.
After spotting the youngster’s football strip, William told him he would ‘see what he could do’ about arranging a meeting for Deacon to meet his hero