THE LIVES OF REILLY

Description

Known to most as Mavis, meet athlete and ex-professional footballer Mark Reilly, whose daughter Dionne suffers from Rett Syndrome, a currently incurable genetic disorder that affects brain development. Coached and inspired by the late, great Tommy Burns at key moments of his career, Mavis played against and alongside household names such as Ally McCoist, Henrik Larsson and Paul Gascoigne, and was a mainstay in the Kilmarnock side that won the Scottish Cup in 1997.

During his time as a footballer, Mavis developed the character and resilience that would set him up not only for responding to Dionne’s needs in a positive light, but also for the gruelling physical challenges he would take on to raise funds for Reverse Rett, a charity with the sole focus of finding a cure. One of these challenges was the Marathon des Sables, the toughest footrace on Earth, in its hottest year on record, where the temperature regularly exceeded 50 degrees Celsius.

Drawing on the themes of positivity, determination and hope, The Lives of Reilly takes you from football pitch to consultancy room to desert, reinforcing the power of positive thinking in pushing limits and achieving goals. Touching, poignant and funny, Mavis’s story is proof that even in the darkest times, light can be found and the seemingly unachievable can be conquered.

“An astonishing account of an amazing man on an epic journey of super-heroic proportions”
Pat Nevin

“Inspiring”
Keith Jackson, Chief Sportswriter, The Daily Record