Brain tumour won't keep football coach at home

Nothing will stop Canterbury football lover Steve Muir from coaching his girls team this season not even a terminal brain tumour.

The dedicated mentor of the Halswell United under-16 girls team and Mainland under-14 girls representative coach is to be honoured in two testimonial matches at English Park on Sunday.

A signed shirt from former England captain Alan Shearer will be raffled and an auction of football items will also be held. Halswell club vice-president Michael Jamieson said another auction would be organised later to sell signed shirts donated by English premier league clubs Arsenal, West Ham and Portsmouth and Wellington Phoenix and All Whites tops.

Muir has been told he has six to eight months to live. But the upbeat 43-year-old, who has three children, 16, 13 and 11, and two stepdaughters aged 13 and 11, is not letting the cancer diagnosis get him down.

He said it had been "pretty difficult on Joanne", his wife of six years, and his family, but he was determined to remain positive and "do the things I enjoy".

"Hopefully, we'll get away on holiday in a couple of months time, and I also intend to carry on coaching this season. Football's my passion," he said.

Muir said he was "totally blown away" by Halswell's offer to organise the testimonial. The suggestion came from the club's director of coaching Graham McMann. "He said, `we need to do something for you because you've done a lot for us'."

Last season Muir assisted with midgets football sessions, coached a Saturday junior team and a girls team on Sunday, played "half a season in goal" for a presidents grade team, was women's club captain and helped wife Joanne "get the club kitchen up and running again".

"I guess I spent three nights a week and most of the weekend at football last season, but I've always loved it."

Muir played his early football in Dunedin at the Green Island, Mornington and Dunedin Technical clubs before moving to Christchurch 12 years ago.

He continued playing here until a knee injury forced him to retire and concentrate on coaching. He coached a youth team at Rolleston "and the club's first women's team" then moved to Halswell where he guided a mixed youth team on Saturday and the girls side on Sunday.

He was a volunteer at the Fifa under-17 women's World Cup in Christchurch last November when he was struck down by the tumour. "I'd just been watching the German team train at Village Green and then we went home and went to the supermarket, where I collapsed, and woke up in a hospital bed. I didn't even know I'd had a seizure."

Now he is looking forward to Sunday's testimonial and "hoping the weather is kind". His girls team will face last year's Mid-Canterbury under-14 team in the 1.30pm curtain-raiser. A Steve Muir-selected premier women's invitation team will play a Mainland Past Stars men's side at 2.30pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News