I received this email from Mr. Holloway, hopefully someone can help. If you can please email me antoine@empireofthekop.com and I will provide you his contact info.
“I wrote to LFC in early March 2011, I am not sure of the exact date. I also wrote to them in early April as i did not get a response for the first letter. Four to six weeks later I got a reply from LFC. The following is what they said (not exact words but, this is basically how it went) this is accurate and true.
Dear Mr Holloway
Thank you for writing to LFC, to ask if your Grandson Harvey could be considered for mascot for LFC. Unfortunately all team mascots are chosen from our business partners/associates and from junior LFC fan clubs on a monthly prizedraw basis. They then stated that they could enrol Harvey “right now” if I rang and had a Visa/Electron card or set up a monthlydirect debit. They also said that mascots were also selected from chosen charities.
Finally they said “we hope Harvey is OK!” it seemed that it was added in as an afterthought. Did anyone at LFC actually read the letter that I sent to them? How could he be OK, when he is termnally ill? I also tole him thate we wanted him over while he can still walk and function. We dont have time to wait for monthly prize draws, hence my request.
I was so angry that I threw the letter in the bin. They sent as a gift a notebook, colouring pencils, a keyring and a plastic whistle. The letter they sent was cold and insensitive, it almost read like a compute generated run of the mill “fob off”. This is not uch of a response for the mass amounts of money spent over the years on tickets, LFC football kits and club merchandise.
Harveys family who are each and everyone a lifetime LFC supporters were angry and hurt at LFCS refusal. LFC should be rminded that outside of Liverpool there isnt a bigger fanbase than here in Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland. In fact it would be fare to saythat no other English Premier League team gets the amount of and level of support that LFC get.
Our local Irish League team, Glentoran FC, who are amateurs on approx £170 per week and the club is in seriousfinancial trouble gave Harvey a tour of the club, autographs, met the players in the dressing room, a kick about on the pitch with the players durig warm up and gave the kids free kits, scarves, training tops, badges, pendants the whole works. He was absolutely made up ok, its a small team but, they are our small team here in Belfast. They lack funds but they dont lack compassion.
We are dissapointed by LFCs response to our request to host Harvey as a mascot in my opinion it is unforgivable. I emphasised in my letter to LFC that we didnt want them to view our request as a begging letter or even emotional blackmail, but we cannot be blamed for trying to give Harvey as much quality in his life as possble. I admit that sometimes your mind can become clouded, even obsessed with wanting the best for Harvey and it could be seen as being selfish. We just want Harvey to know that he is loved so much in the time that he has left for him and us.
yours sincerely
Robert Holloway”