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Amputee's bus pass challenge for run down rugby club

Ewan Gawne
BBC News, Manchester
BBC Barry Mackleston, who is bald and has black-rimmed glasses, sits in a purple-coloured BBC Radio Manchester studio as he speak to a presenter. BBC
Barry Mackleston volunteered at his local rugby club after losing his leg

A 71-year-old amputee plans to travel hundreds of miles in his wheelchair using only his bus pass to raise money for the local rugby club that brought him "back into the world" after a life-changing accident.

Barry Mackleston will attempt the bus-only journey from Manchester to London to improve run down facilities at Wythenshawe Community Rugby Club.

He started volunteering at the club after losing his leg four years ago in an accident and said the positive impact on his mental health was "beyond words".

He said: "I was in a coma for a huge length of time, and you wake up, and your whole life is changed. Rugby kind of brought me back into the world again."

Wythenshawe Community Rugby Club Barry smiles wearing a black polo shirt while sat on public transport, with sun shining through a window. Wythenshawe Community Rugby Club
Barry Mackleston said the impact of joining the club on his mental health was "beyond words"

Mr Mackleston, a former transport worker and avid Sale Sharks fan who lives in Wythenshawe, credits much of his recovery to the club, where he started working as club secretary following the accident.

"I wasn't treated as somebody in the wheelchair, and that really did matter," he said.

More than 70 adults and children play in Wythenshawe Community Rugby Club's adult and junior sides, but its facilities at Painswick Park are in a bad state.

Youth teams are unable to use the dilapidated clubhouse, that is plagued with plumbing and structural issues as well as a problems with rats.

That came to a head when the rodents devoured a store of food kept in the shed for a fun day last year, Mr Mackleston said.

"If you looked at our clubhouse, and it was a house, you'd call it a slum, it is the worst of the worst," he told BBC Radio Manchester.

Wythenshawe Community Rugby Club A rotten wooden fixture close to a urinal in a dingy bathroom. Wythenshawe Community Rugby Club
The rugby club's facilities are in a state of disrepair

Mr Mackleston is taking on his challenge to raise cash to replace the dilapidated clubhouse, and will set off from the ground on 7 March, with the aim of arriving at Twickenham two days later for England's Six Nations clash with Italy.

It will see him travel via Buxton, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, and through into London using only buses.

"I need to do something that proves just because I am in a wheelchair, I can still do it," he said.

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