Grealish Gave £10,000 to Terminally Ill Fan Hours Before Everton Dropped Him

• Jack Grealish donated £10,000 to the fundraiser of Leon, an Everton supporter and father of three who has been told his cancer is terminal, per the Mirror.
• Leon’s partner Crystal says she and Leon “both just burst into tears” when she saw the donation.
• Everton left Grealish out of the Carabao Cup tie with Newcastle hours later, citing a breach of club discipline.

The Gift That Gave One Everton Family Hope

Crystal refreshed the fundraising page three times. She thought it had thrown up an error. It had not. Jack Grealish’s name sat on the screen beside a donation of £10,000.

“I was in complete shock,” she said. She ran downstairs to wake her partner Leon, who was asleep, and was so overwhelmed she could barely get the words out. When she told him, his whole face lit up. The couple hugged, smiled at each other and then “both just burst into tears”.

A Family Fighting for More Time

Leon is an Everton supporter, and Crystal calls theirs an “Everton family”. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer in March 2025 and had his right kidney removed in major surgery. The cancer returned and spread three months later. He has been told his condition is terminal, and he is in palliative care on the NHS. He has been given one to three years to live.

The family and their local community started a fundraiser to pay for treatments and clinical trials the NHS does not offer. Anton Powers, a DJ and an Evertonian, put Leon’s story on his Instagram, and Grealish donated to the fund soon after. “What an absolute gent Jack Grealish is,” Powers wrote.

Crystal said the gift reached further than the money. “It wasn’t just seeing £10,000 on a screen, it was suddenly feeling like we were a huge step closer to getting Leon the treatment we are desperately fighting for,” she said. “In that moment, Jack gave our whole family something we desperately needed, hope.”

Left Out of the Squad Hours Later

The same day, Everton named a squad for the Carabao Cup tie at home to Newcastle without Grealish. The club said he was unavailable for selection after a “breach of Club discipline” and gave no further detail. Jarrad Branthwaite was also missing, sidelined by concussion protocols for a second successive game.

Everton won the tie 3-1 with Hayden Hackney and Thierno Barry among the scorers, and Dan Burn replying for Newcastle. David Moyes kept his answer about Grealish short. “It’s something I don’t really want to speak too much about. It’s a club decision, so I support the decision,” he said. The Everton manager also refused to say whether Grealish would be available when the two clubs meet in the league at St James’ Park on Monday.

Grealish had already missed the 2-0 loss to Arsenal the weekend before, which the club put down to illness.

A Habit of Quiet Giving

Fans filled the comments under Powers’ post with praise. One wrote that Grealish “makes a lot of charity donations like this”. Another said Grealish never advertises his giving and that it is “always others that tell his story”.

The record backs that up. Grealish gave £5,000 to the family of a woman killed in a car accident in 2021, and another £5,000 for funeral costs for an Aston Villa supporter in 2023.

The 31-year-old is in his second loan spell at Everton from Manchester City, after he joined Everton on loan last year. This season he has started three Premier League games and come off the bench in two others.

What Comes Next

Moyes has not said whether Grealish is in contention for the league trip to Newcastle on Monday. Everton also have a quarter-final to prepare for, against League Two side Fleetwood Town, who beat Arsenal on penalties. Moyes fielded a question about Everton’s Carabao Cup ambitions in August, and the run has now reached the last eight.

The fundraiser for Leon is still open. Crystal says everything the family is doing is “about trying to give Leon the best possible chance of being here to watch them grow up”.

WRITTEN BY

George Howson

George Howson is a Futbol Chronicle contributor and accredited journalist with over 20 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, George has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing deep knowledge and first-hand insight to every match report and analysis he writes.

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