Leeds United fans urged to 53rd minute applause for lifelong battler at Brighton match | OneFootball

Leeds United fans have been urged to hold a 53rd minute applause during Sunday’s Brighton match at Elland Road for East Stand season ticket holder Giles McVicar, who died last month aged 53, according to yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk.

Rob McVicar said his father embodied the club’s fighting spirit. Giles became a Leeds fan in the late 70s while collecting Panini stickers with his brother James, and he leaves sons Rob and Harry.

His health battles began with a heart transplant at 17 in 1990, then Hodgkin lymphoma at 19. After repeated relapses he required a second heart transplant at 26, later developed end-stage renal failure and spent over six years on dialysis before a kidney transplant in summer 2025.

The transplant succeeded, with kidney function rising to as high as 80 per cent. He remained in and out of hospital and most recently fought sepsis of the biliary tract, which led to acute kidney injury and a pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. His 36-year fight ended on April 22.

Despite illness he kept following Leeds, from memorable Champions League nights in the early 2000s. He attended with close friend Peter Muller, first in the boys pen at the Lowfields, then as a Kop season ticket holder in the early 90s.

After Rob and his brother were born in 2003 and 2005, their dad took them to Elland Road. They secured season tickets when Rob was 13, which happened to coincide with Marcelo Bielsa’s first season, and kept attending regularly with the odd away trip.

Source: yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk