Marathon effort for much missed Lichfield player
When Josh Machin, who teammates knew as JM3, a popular Lichfield RUFC tight-head prop, died in June, after being diagnosed with cancer, the whole club was devastated.
Losing a club member at the age of 30 hit everyone hard, especially as Josh had played throughout the mini and junior sections, before becoming a regular 1st XV player.
To create a legacy for such a larger-than-life personality and help his family with financial costs as well as supporting two charities important to Josh, club members organised a 24-hour non-stop touch rugby match, from 3pm to 3pm the following day, which they titled JM3 ‘til 3.
Non-stop touch rugby
On Friday 21st July, more than 300 people arrived at the Cooke Fields clubhouse. Boys and girls from the U7s up to U16s, as well as the club’s touch rugby team, covered daytime hourly sessions, with the overnight shift played by senior players.
As well as members of Lichfield RUFC, teams from other local clubs joined in with the match and referees from Staffordshire RFU volunteered to referee 22 out of the 24 hours played.
The final hour of the day was played by two sides, made up of Josh’s closest friends from The Friary school, King Edward VI Lichfield school and from the rugby club, who all wore JM3 shirts. It was refereed by Premiership referee Craig Maxwell-Keys, a former Lichfield RUFC junior. Once the almighty 24-hour effort was complete, a congratulatory message came in from former British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton.
Lichfield’s Director of Rugby and the event organiser Dan Hemingway said: “The whole club, as well as members of the local community, wanted to get involved. Everyone in our community knew Josh and everyone wanted to do their bit to be part of celebrating his life.”
Raising vital funds
Throughout the 24-hour game, the JM3 ‘til 3 JustGiving page was flooded with donations, both from members of Lichfield RUFC and from members of the rugby community who had heard about Josh’s story.
The funds from the match will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support and LooseHeadz, two charities that played an important role in Josh’s life.
Macmillan played a key role in supporting Josh and his family during the later stages of his life, and LooseHeadz is a rugby charity fighting to #TackleTheStigma around mental health, something that was very important to Josh .
Hemingway said: “We initially set a target of £5,000, to help Josh’s family with covering funeral costs. We hit the target in less than two weeks, so we decided to raise funds for important charities as part of Josh’s legacy.
“The game was hard – a lot harder than we thought it would be! But it was incredible. The response from the rugby community was everything we had hoped for and more. The day was a reminder of how important rugby is to people and how the rugby community pulls together. They did everything we were hoping they’d do, and ten times more.”
Together with funds raised from a raffle and an auction at the club, the total raised from JM3 ‘til 3 is over £17,000. The link to the JustGiving page is here.
