by The Editor - David Lane

In 1958 I was a very keen football fan and my dad used to take me to the local park to support the local team. As a six year old in 1958 it was hardly likely that I would have read a national newspaper but we did have a radio and a very basic TV. It was from listening to the unfolding news reports that I first heard about the tragic happenings in a snowy Germany.

It was some years later that after I had started collecting football programmes and other memorabilia that I was able to establish a better understanding of the impact the accident had on everyone involved. It prompted me to especially follow the career of Bobby Charlton who became my hero. Alas I never managed to emulate him although I did crack some goals in with my left foot from distance in my early dreams.

However it was in the mid 1990's when through a chance meeting with some German and Czech teachers visiting the UK looking for project partners that I was introduced to a Head Teacher from Barnet called Neil Berry. He invited me to join him on a visit to Magdeburg where we would explore some ideas for a joint project with a school which he already knew. I asked about how we should travel and he insisted that he wanted to go by train. It was not until we were deeply engrossed in conversation about our favourite pastime of watching football that he explained that his father, Johnny Berry, played for Manchester United and had in fact been a survivor of the disaster. This meant that he would never ever fly, it had left a huge impact in his and his families lives.

It was largely due to this liaison that I developed a close friendship with one particular German Teacher from Magdeburg and between them, Thomas and Neil provided me with the enthusiasm and motivation to set up and work with broader more extensive Europen Projects like the YEC.