Russell Crowe helps stuntman pay £25k surgery bill

Russell Crowe worked with Charlie Allan on movies like Gladiator and Robin Hood

An actor and stunt co-ordinator who injured his leg has reached his £25,000 fundraising target for treatment with help from his friend Russell Crowe.

Charlie Allan, from the Scottish Borders, teaches and performs combat in film and television.

He became friends with the Australian movie star after they worked on action films together, including Gladiator and Robin Hood.

Mr Allan, 61, injured his leg in August while building an access platform to his gym which led to a dangerous arterial thrombosis - where a blood clot develops in an artery.

A previous injury prevented him from having a vein grafted from his right leg, but a procedure known as an endovascular thrombectomy could fix the problem.

However, the procedure is not available in the UK and comes with costs amounting to more than £20,000.

Mr Allan told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme how he got injured after he stepped off the building platform and his leg gave out.

"I got some really crazy awful crunches, the type you don't want to hear when you fall," he said.

"I pushed through and less than a week later I got some severe pain in my leg so I went to A&E.

"One thing led to another and I ended up in Hairmyres (Hospital) up in East Kilbride and discovered I had clotting behind the knee - so it's shut off the circulation in my lower leg."

Russell Crowe was the protagonist looking for revenge in the 2000 blockbuster Gladiator

Two of his friends set up the fundraiser, which he said he had to be "talked into" initially.

Mr Allan asked Crowe to share it but joked the Gladiator star went "against my wishes" when he donated £5,000 as well.

He told the PA news agency: "Yeah it was a big surprise because I asked him not to.

"He's been kind to me in so many ways. I never ask Russell for anything.

"I've never pressured him for anything, so against my wishes he donated anyway but he also did what I asked him to do and put it out there on his X account.

"I'm very humbled, it means everything to me. The level of support and love has just been quite overwhelming to be honest."

Mr Allan hit his target just a week after the fundraiser launched.

He received donations from Outlander star Sam Heughan as well as Terri and Robert Irwin, the wife and son of the late Australian zookeeper Steve Irwin.

The stuntman said the treatment he needs is not available in the UK so he has to travel to Europe.

"They send something down into your arteries and it scours out all the clotting," he said.

"They put a filter in your heart to stop anything backwashing into your heart and causing further complications. It's quite a simple thing but it's very costly."

'Very humbled'

Crowe shared the fundraiser on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the message: "If you ever saw the first Gladiator, the barbarian leader who tosses the severed head of a Roman emissary back towards the Roman line in a display of defiance, is Charlie Allan.

"We also worked together on Robin Hood. He is a great bloke and a good friend."

A sequel to the original Gladiator film was released earlier this month, 24 years after director Ridley Scott's epic debuted to critical acclaim.

Mr Allan, who has a martial arts background, said he got involved in film and television combat around 30 years ago when he noticed people "messing around" in the background of movies.

He said he was "very humbled" by the support and grateful to Crowe for sharing the fundraiser.

"Russell is a really warm character, very caring," he said.

"He's one of the most generous guys I've ever met in my life. He's very observant and does a lot to help people, a lot of things you never hear about."

Once he has recovered, he is looking forward to returning to work and playing with his son.

"I can't walk far without pain and I certainly can't run, and then it's had a compounding effect on my legs because you get weak after you haven't moved for so many weeks," he said.

"First thing I want to do is run around with my little boy. He's 16 months now and it's quite hard to keep up with him.

"I'm just looking to get back to acting because I've got a lot of promise on the horizon, so I just want to get back to work again."