By Gary Cooper

FATHER’S DAY will hold extra significance this weekend for one proud Forfar dad overjoyed at celebrating it with his brave young son.

Keith Thomson is looking forward to a family day out on Sunday with his wife Fiona and son Stuart, who has an incurable auto-immune liver disease.

Their lives were turned upside down four years ago when 12-year-old Stuart was diagnosed with liver disease.

But it has failed to hold the plucky youngster back as he endeavours to lead a normal and very active life.

Mr Thomson is well-known in the town as the manager of the championship-winning Canmore Colts football team, with Stuart one of its star strikers.

The Colts are still on a high after winning the Dundee and District under-13s league which saw Stuart score 31 goals on their way to the season’s success, despite his illness.

“He delivers 100% during every match,” Mr Thomson said yesterday. “It takes his body another day to recover, but he is a very brave boy and puts me to shame.”

In their decider against Broughty United, the Colts were down 1-0 before bouncing back to win 7-2, with Stuart’s name among those on the scoresheet.

He has refused to be sidelined by the disease and last year Stuart joined his father on the Great North Run at Newcastle.

The pair ran for the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, with Stuart completing the two-mile junior course before seeing his dad cross the finish line of the half-marathon.

It was a thank you to the foundation which has supported the family since Stuart’s devastating diagnosis.

The charity is the only organisation in the UK dedicated to fighting all liver diseases in childhood.

Mr Thomson said, “Father’s Day is particularly special for me, because there have been times when I haven’t expected to celebrate another one.”

He added that the family had been able to contact others going through the same worries thanks to the foundation’s support.

Charity chief executive Catherine Arkley said, “We are able to give thousands of families one strong voice to effect change in how childhood liver diseases are treated, so that one day kids like Stuart won’t have to learn to cope, but will eventually be cured.”

The foundation, formed in 1980, funds pioneering research and educates healthcare professionals and the public.

It said more children in the UK are diagnosed with a liver disease than childhood leukaemia—at least two are diagnosed with a liver disease every day in the country.