Grace given a day to remember thanks to Celtic FC Women

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The Celtic Star

·18 de diciembre de 2025

Grace given a day to remember thanks to Celtic FC Women

When it comes to football, the mood around Celtic Park is dreary. But off the pitch, the club can still have a positive impact – as Celtic and the women’s team recently demonstrated…

My 12-year old niece Grace loves football. She goes to see Celtic and Scotland, both the men’s and women’s teams. Grace also loves playing football.

However, for years now, she has suffered from extreme pain which was eventually diagnosed as Trigeminal Neuralgia. This horrible and little-known condition – almost unheard of in children – causes suffering akin to severe facial “electric shocks”. You can learn more here.

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The result of this for Grace has been life impacting, forcing her to regularly miss school or other activities such as playing football. She even had to give up her season ticket for the Celtic Women’s team.

Next week, just as most people will be getting ready for Christmas, Grace will be in Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She will undergo all-day surgery in the hope of fixing this, and will then spend Christmas Day and beyond recovering in the hospital.

When Celtic heard about this, their support for Grace was brilliant. As well as receiving a personal letter from club captain Callum McGregor, she was invited to a training session at Barrowfield with the women’s team.

To say the players were fantastic with Grace does not do them justice. As well as all of them knowing her name (which amazed her), they involved Grace in all their training activities. In particular, Amy Gallacher (Grace’s favourite player) and manager Elena Sadiku went out of their way to make her welcome.

On Instagram you can see footage of the day, including Grace’s ‘last minute’ penalty!

Small moments can be the best part of life. Whilst Grace faces many challenges ahead – not least her upcoming surgery – this encouragement from Celtic has made all the difference in lifting her mood.

Even when the club’s on-field performance may not be all that the fans want, it’s worth remembering that in other ways it is still a very grand old team.