It’s two and a half years since Oscar’s dad, Stephen ‘Knoxy’ shared the news he’d just received that his three-year-old son had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an apparently rare form of childhood cancer. All the pains and fears of that day, and the years since, came to the fore over the last eight weeks as the disease took hold. Oscar’s battle ended yesterday.
On this day we should acknowledge the enormous work by so many people to get Oscar the treatment he needed, many of whom would never meet him. The treatment cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, a daunting figure, but one which was soon met. Without this fundraising, Oscar would have died in 2012. Instead, he lived, played and inspired many with his enthusiasm until recent weeks. His fantastic “Happy Birthday CQN” video message was recorded just two months ago; a gift to this community.
For now, there are no meaningful words for Stephen, Oscar’s mum Leona, sister Izzie and their family and friends, but we will be there for them in the months and years to come.
This disease, in all its forms, is a curse on humanity. We need more fundraising, more research, more education on its dangers.
Before Sunday’s game against Dundee United you will be able to buy a Celtic FC Foundation badge, to aid work with homelessness in the Glasgow area. Badges cost a minimum donation of £1, a price we can all afford to help our neighbours in most need.
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Ryecatcher, great post.. Heading off to my nephew’s First Communion now, wee Oscar in our thoughts..
Came home late last night and read every post posted on CQN, it’s been a while since I did that but yesterday was one of those days in the most difficult circumstances where this family rises above itself and represents what we believe in and feel to a wonderful level, too many great posts to name names but thank you CQN and thank you We Oscar for the light you shone into all of our lives all over the world…
Well done the young Hoops…
Pogmathonyahun
You also have mail.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
HT
All my dentist appointments seem to be at 2:30 for some reason……….
Another wee reminder.
“An application to transfer the Scottish Premier League membership from the ‘oldco’ to the ‘newco’ was rejected on a 10–1 vote”.
Kilmarnock abstained.
” I also thought more time should have been given to Charles Green to develop his proposal for accepting a level of punishment that would have kept Rangers in the SPL.”- Michael Johnston, Kilmarnock chairman.
Come on the hibees.
Lennybhoy
Replied to text mate.
Coneybhoy
I’m 20 years late for my last dental appointment!! :-)
GCW
See you about 5 :-)
Well done the U’20’s
http://www.scotzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/m_Group-Celeb1.jpg
5 in a row; reminds me that on this day in 1998 we stopped 10! I’ll raise a glass to that today and to the brave wee fighter.
YNWA
hamiltontim is praying for oscar
10:10 on 10 May, 2014
See you soon, mine’s a Guinness in case your memory not what it was…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Yesterday, Perhaps CQN’s finest day. Humbled & Inspired by the posts. To all on the day out in Glasgow, enjoy the day, I wish I was with ye.
Looking forward to todays Hootenanny may be a bit late as I am trying to teach the grandson how to ride a bike and it’s not going to well. This could be a long day.
corkcelt
10:14 on 10 May, 2014
You will be with us today my friend as will other absent friends who cannot be with us in body for various reasons.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
From the 1st brick to the cutting ribbon Brilliant from start to finish The Celtic Way Time-lapse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3elInp0RJM&feature=youtu.be
See you all later.
Today among mayhem & carnage :)) the healing process begins in the CQN family.
What a gift we were given in Oscar James Knox
A life changer of a child.
I will be the one keeping an eye on yon Lennybhoy on the train I was offered the job of keeping my eye on BMCUW but it was too big a job for just one mhan.
I am really looking forward to today and being among you all .
—————–
fleagle1888
07:25 on 10 May, 2014
Lads,
please post your CQN naps here…
The St J 3 celtic 3 pages
this is the penultimate week, so for the stragglers you should start looking for those 100/1 shots… and make sure to include them on your Scoop6 bets…
Happy punting.
fleagle1888
Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney
I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bellsknelling classesto a close. At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying–He had always taken funerals in his stride–And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shakemy hand
And tell me they were “sorry for my trouble,” Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, asmy mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by thenurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
HH
Billy No’Well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU6yTsgvPlVn0ONMFQkvoaBQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=LVyCQo4kpGQ
HH
Would love to see Robert Snodgrass at Celtic….
Absolute quality footballer who ‘gets’ us…..
Hurry up Home wee man…….we’ve waited too long!!
A Hoops fanatic good enough to grace them.
roy croppie
Thank you for that I have been trying to find it for ages:)))))
YNWA Oscar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KNNMTigZ41s
HH
From todays Herald, courtesy of Barcabhoy on TSFM…..
Pressure on Murray over pension deficit
Scott Wright
Group business correspondent
Saturday 10 May 2014
TRUSTEES with the pension fund of former Rangers owner Sir David Murray’s conglomerate have been rebuffed after calling for the scheme’s deficit to be paid in full amid concerns over the group’s “worsening financial position”.
deal: Sir David Murray’s MIH is due to meet trustees for further negotiations over the pension plan next week.
Murray International Holdings, chaired by Sir David, has been approached by the trustees to pay off the £22.5m deficit, having stopped making additional payments to fund it in September.
The pension scheme has 315 members, including 75 pensioners. Some 240 are members whose pensions have yet to come into payment.
MIH insisted it is “not denying the scheme is an issue for the group” and declared that it has been “engaged with the trustees to try to find a compromise solution” since March 2013.
Mike McGill, group finance director at MIH, said: “We are not sitting here in abject denial. We are aware it is an issue and we are actively managing our way through it.
“We are not unlike other corporates with [issues] over legacy defined pension schemes.”
A deal struck in April 2010 had seen MIH agree to fund the deficit by £1m a year through monthly contributions while making further payments arising from asset disposals as they occurred.
The company stopped making additional payments in the third quarter of last year.
In a letter to pension fund members seen by The Herald, trustee Stephen Foster at actuaries Punter Southall states that concern over the group’s “worsening financial position” has led to pursue a possible buyout of the plan with specialist insurance firms.
Mr Foster states in the letter that the trustees agreed earlier this year to a company proposal to “jointly explore a route, financed by a lower and unquantified company contribution, by which the benefits to be provided by the plan would be scaled back but would exceed the lower benefits provided by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF)”.
The aim would be to recover as many of the benefits from the plan as possible on behalf of its members.
With the agreement of MIH, Mr Foster confirmed that two companies have offered to provide quotations. These quotes are expected to be discussed when the trustees and MIH meet next week.
In the letter, dated April 24, Mr Foster said: “The extent of the “scaling back” of benefits remains to be agreed but the company’s position is that, with so few asset disposals remaining, they will not be able to make a substantial contribution”.
Mr McGill said MIH has made “substantial payments” of around £10m into the scheme since between regular contributions, which it continues to make, and contributions arising from asset disposals.
And he declared that the letter from the trustees to the pension fund members “omits the fact the company has been engaged since March 2013 to try to find a solution”.
Noting that it was MIH which had appointed the independent trustee, he said: “We are still engaged in these discussions with the trustees.
“We also involved the pension regulator to fund the best outcome.”
Asked why the pension fund was in deficit, Mr McGill highlighted the fact people are living longer and bond yields being at an “all-time” low in the UK.
In the company’s most recent accounts, MIH hailed the progress made by its asset disposal and debt reduction plan in the year ended June 30, 2013.
The company reduced its debt pile by £23.3m over the year, however net debt stood at £346.7m at the end of the accounting period.
It raised £22m by offloading its Premier Hytemp oil and gas business in November 2012, while PPG, its commercial and industrial property division, netted disposal proceeds of £18.1m. PPG has booked a further £104.4m of disposals since year end.
The accounts were filed shortly after MIH sold the majority of its assets held by Murray Estates, its residential property arm, to Murray Capital for £13.9m.
Writing in the accounts, Sir David highlighted the progress on disposals and debt reduction as a “significant and a very credible performance”.
But in notes to the financial statements, the board and shareholders reveal uncertainty over continuing bank funding and the group’s liability to a staff pension and life assurance plan cast “significant doubt upon the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
leftclicktic we are all neil lennon
10:17 on 10 May, 2014
Text you later, Mrs. LB still earning that Medal you keep telling her about and hopefully drop us at Station, if so will pick you up. Jury still out as she is in Bed with a hangover.
Told her where I am taking her for our 20th wedding anniversary on 4th June…she was doing my head in.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
leftclicktic We are all Neil Lennon
A pleasure mate, love that song.
HH
ryecatcher
10:21 on 10 May, 2014
You just never know, you might get your wish…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Do not stand by my grave and weep by Mary Frye Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. (Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die!)
HH
.
Off down Strathclyde Park to do the 6mile fun walk/run for Motor Neurone Disease to raise some funds for this as yet incurable illness.Wearing one of my Dads old vintage training tops in his memory so he will be with me all the way round……Good luck to everyone attending xxxxx
Found CQN Hard to read yesterday..HT quote of Oscar in Heaven in his Spiderman suit eating Pizza briefly brought a Smile..
Jinky and Wee Oscar 2 Giants..
‘We will Never forget You’
001Bhoy
Minty’s pension defecit is Maxwellesque in size.
No surprises there.
Horrible men
Have a great party tonight guys and gals. One with laughter joy and merriment. You all have deserved and earned it.
See you next week.
HH
Sir David highlighted ‘disposals’……hmmmmmm
Got lots of stuff on this and will post on a Moonhowling shift one night….
We were cheated but never defeated…..
Condolences to the Knox family at an even more difficult time than they’ve already had.
RIP Oscar
BIG SHUGGY
My admiration to you for having kept on going following the similar tragedy you had.
There can be nothing harder to face.
Hail Hail
What brings us together…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnOlAErIgAAI9ga.png:large
HH
Regarded as a ‘Celtic’ tune in Denmark for some reason……
Great song nevertheless…..
The Green Fields Of France – YouTube
► 5:58► 5:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntt3wy-L8Ok
4 May 2007 – Uploaded by anarchynotchaos
Song by The Fureys and Davey Arthur. Written By Eric Bogle.
Rip wo
I’m leaving for the Big Day Oot. It’s going to be MENTAL.
Popped on and out yesterday and had tears in my eyes every time.
CQN at its finest.
Wee Oscar and family, you will never walk alone.
To all the Bhoys on the bevvy today, have a good one. Look after each other.
Wish I was there.
It would be wonderful to see Murray called to book for his abject arrogance…
Burghbhoy….
Bang on comparing Minty to Maxwell……
Check out Murray’s family history too…..
Like Father Like Son…..
NobodylistenedCSC
RIP wee Oscar. My thoughts and prayers are with his parents and sister. God Bless. xx
I’ll be having a celebration lunch with family today in La Laterna. First time there (WDH recommendation).
It’s to celebrate my folks’ wedding anniversary and my auld man’s 85th birthday. He passed away last year, a week before his 84th.
It will not be a morbid affair and I know that future celebrations of Oscar’s short life will be the same. A celebration of someone who touched others’ lives.
RIP Dick and Oscar. Thanks for living as you did.
Aff oot for a pie,a pint,and a punt…..
Talking about punting……we will never see her like again….
Remember screaming myself hoarse as she majestically came up the hill at Cheltenham that day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axnsmSIWOZw