They are among the Old Firm’s most legendary rivals – but Graeme Souness and Scott Brown are teaming up in their biggest battle of all.
They’re banding together to climb Ben Nevis and complete an open-air swim near the top, in the Scottish leg of the huge three-day, three-peak challenge Graeme is taking on next week for DEBRA.
Graeme is DEBRA president and Scott is an ambassador, working with the charity to help bring relief, hope and a better future for patients and families living with Epidermolysis bullosa (EB), also known as Butterfly Skin.
EB is a rare condition which causes agonising blisters and tearing all over the body, with no cure and limited treatments – but the pair are raising money to help change that.
Graeme said: “This is a team challenge, as everything is really. It’s not about me or any one person – this is a group of people coming together to raise money that is desperately needed.
“Scott and I have worked together in the years since football and he is also passionate about helping DEBRA in the battle to offer hope, help and positivity for families living with EB.
“The challenge is big – but not as big as those EB families face every single day.”
Graeme’s latest DEBRA challenge sees him climbing the UK’s three highest peaks - Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis - and taking on high altitude swims near each peak, all in three days.
Scott will join him to climb Ben Nevis and take on an open water swim halfway through – despite being scared of heights.
Scott said: “I’m doing one of three peaks – Graeme is doing three in three days so I have it easy.
“There are bigger things in life than football. It is the biggest sport in world, we do it and we enjoy it. It is a big part of life for us and for fans but this is much bigger.
“We have to come together to help. This is not about Graeme and I or Rangers and Celtic – it’s about coming together to help others who really need that support.
“I know Rangers fans have really got behind Graeme and put a lot of money in through things he has done for DEBRA. I am sure Celtic fans will be doing the same.
“This is about people, not football. It’s about seeing young kids not having what we think of as a normal life, just constant pain. Seeing how hard parents work to look after their kids, the ordeal of changing bandages and the pain it brings. The kids know it’s coming and have to endure it.”
Both men were renowned for their toughness on and off the pitch as players and managers, but Graeme revealed a very different side through his work with DEBRA, breaking down while talking about EB and why he desperately wants to help.
Scott felt he had to get involved too – he says it’s impossible not to feel for kids and parents living with EB, who show what real toughness looks like.
Scott said: “Graeme is not an emotional guy but you can see the impact people like Isla have had on him, seeing up close what kids with EB deal with.
“I am quite similar to Graeme in that I am not an emotional guy – I can be quite dry – but it’s impossible not to feel something when you understand how hard kids with EB have life every day. Especially the young kids.
“That is real toughness for you – they knock the likes of Graeme and I out the window on that. These kids and their families know better than us, than anyone, what bravery is. Their whole life is pain, it is always there.
“I just desperately hope that eventually we can achieve some sort of treatment for them, some way to make life easier - ideally a cure.”
Graeme will also be joined by Harry Clark, winner of BBC’s The Traitors series 2, and members of the EB community including Kevin Kealy - who has EB simplex and will complete every leg - and Calum Blackman, dad to three-year-old Albi who has recessive dystrophic EB.
This tough new challenge will form a key part of DEBRA UK’s urgent £20m Stop the Pain appeal, which aims to fund better care now and drive the development of treatments that could heal EB wounds faster, reduce pain and itch, and bring hope of a future free from the agony of EB.
Graeme said: “People all over the UK have given the most incredible support already for DEBRA, whether through our challenges together or through learning about EB and wanting to help.
“That’s the key to it all, more awareness, more money and support to really make a difference.
“If Scott and I doing this means more fans want to help, that’s fantastic. We’re doing it as people who cannot see this kind of suffering and not try to alleviate the pain somehow.
“What we can do is help bring attention and funding to hopefully make that difference – but only with the support of people everywhere.
“This is the greatest battle of all – and we need your help.”
Make a donation via Debra.org.uk/graeme.