A big hearted teenager is hunting for her grandfather’s former football pals to help cheer him on as he battles back to health.
Jorja Martin-Forsyth has already managed to assemble an impressive roster of sporting legends to record messages of support for Ally Martin.
Hamish McAlpine, Colin Hendry, Peter Schmeichel and Craig Brewster are among the stars who have signed up, along with the current Broughty United squad.
Ally, 78, played for the club in the 1960s and 70s and has maintained his ties with it ever since.
Earlier this year he suffered a series mini-strokes that have knocked his confidence and meant he has had to re-learn some everyday tasks.
Jorja, 15, from Monifieth, decided to collect video messages to show him how many people were rooting for him to get well.
The idea started with the current Broughty United team filming themselves taking on the crossbar challenge, an accuracy task where each player tries to hit the crossbar from a certain distance.
It then “grew arms and legs” and the Monifieth High School pupil and her friend Caragh Benson have now gathered clips from former Dundee United goalkeeper Hamish McAlpine, as well as a host of other stars.
They are also hoping to receive a letter from manager Jose Mourinho.
The family are still finalising the video and are hoping to add more teammates from Ally’s playing days so they can surprise him at his Broughty Ferry home.
Jorja said: “Hopefully some people will see this and get in touch so they can get involved. We’ve got some players from then already, but it would be nice to get some more.
“Football is his life.
“He started playing for Broughty United when he was 18 and retired at 40, but he is still involved in the club, helping put up the nets and things like that, right up until this year when everything shut down.”
Jorja took inspiration from her neighbour and school friend Caragh Benson, who created a video message for her great-grandmother Norma Anderson after the death of her husband.
Caragh, 14, succeeded in getting stars from Norma’s favourite televisions shows to contribute to that clip, including Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas and Downtown Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville.
Caragh said: “When I did the video for my great-gran, it was emotional.
“It gave her something positive during a bad time so it was a nice feeling to do that.”
Jill Martin, Jorja’s mother, said: “It’s been fun watching the girls work on this, I am very proud of them.
“It will give him a boost. His confidence has taken a bit of a knock this year, so I hope he enjoys it when he sees it.”
Anyone who would like to contribute to the video is asked to email Jill on dantheman151@outlook.com.
