The Craig Gowans Guinness World Record Match

Contributed by Jonathan Wallace the founder and organiser of The Craig Gowans Guinness World Record Match.

My best friend Craig sadly passed away at the tender age of 17 whilst training with Falkirk FC, only two weeks after signing with them professionally. Craig was an incredibly talented person, on and off the football pitch. He had already been accepted to study architecture at Edinburgh University but he chose to pursue his football career like any young kid would do. His passing was widely documented throughout the country due to the tragic circumstances.

Since then, friends and family (myself included) help to start the Craig Gowans Memorial Fund, which has so far raised over £80,000 for charities such as CHAS, Chesney Trust and more regularly the Sick Kids Friends Foundation. I would tell you more about this incredible fundraising that’s happened since the fund was set up, but I assure you this would take some time to type out!

We always want to impact peoples lives for the better and use Craig’s name as the driving force for this good. He would have changed the world if he had been here.

To mark the 10th anniversary of Craig’s passing, I and 35 others are aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the longest 11-a-side football match. The record currently stands at 72 hours but we aim to smash this!

We want to ensure Craig’s name is rightfully put into the record books! We will start on 4 July 2015 and aim to finish the match on 8 July and the £37,000 raised will go to the new Sick Kids Hospital in Little France.

All information about the match can be found on our website – http://www.tcggwrm.org

Submitted by Jonny Wallace