Ipswich Town's Dominic Ball in fundraising drive after friend's cancer death

Dominic Ball (second from left) is raising funds for Sarcoma UK after his friend Spencer McCall (third from right) died from a rare bone cancer.

Ipswich Town footballer Dominic Ball is raising awareness of bone cancer after the death of his friend aged 26.

The midfielder met Spencer McCall when they were 11-years-old and bonded over a shared love of football.

Mr McCall was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma in 2019 when a suspected bruised bone turned out to be a tumour which had led to a leg fracture.

Funds from the player's book, From Winning Teams to Broken Dreams, were donated to Sarcoma UK.

The book, which has raised £10,000 so far, focuses on Ball's group of friends, including Mr McCall, and their journey to become professional footballers.

Sarcomas can appear anywhere in the body but the two most common types are bone sarcomas and soft tissue sarcomas.

Mr McCall, who was playing for Hemel Hempstead Town FC when he was diagnosed, initially thought he had injured himself in training.

Dominic Ball has donated some of the funds from his book to Sarcoma UK

'Inspiration'

However, after mounting pain a scan revealed a Ewing sarcoma tumour in his leg which had caused a fracture. Ewing sarcomas make up just 14% of all bone sarcoma diagnoses.

He said: "It took a long time to diagnose it, which it does with these bone cancers, which is why it is such a difficult one to find.

"Working with Sarcoma now, you hear about young adults, young men that are diagnosed and it is very rare. And the amount of sarcomas there are, are quite a lot too, so to try and treat them is very difficult."

Dominic Ball began his career at Tottenham Hotspur and joined Ipswich Town from Queens Park Rangers

Seeing his friend go through treatment was an "inspiration" and has led to him wanting to educate more people, especially young adults who think it might never happen to them.

"Our group of mates was really close and, to be honest, Spencer was probably one of the toughest in the group. Dealing with tough times, he showed me during that period how positive he was because he never let us feel down about it and he was a real inspiration."

He is appearing at an event discussing his book at Portman Road at 19:00 BST in aid of Sarcoma UK and the Ipswich Town Foundation.