Leeds United fan's tragic death and Whites stars' kindness serve timely reminder

The second-best thing, and it’s a close second, is the stories of the people we share a love of football with. The supporters, the players, the managers, the staff members and characters around Elland Road – even the agents, or some of them at least. People give football its human interest and, as we discovered during a season of empty stadia, its soul.

There will have been times, long periods in fact, before Marcelo Bielsa came along, when the football itself finished a distant second to the people and their stories.

When, with Bielsa at the helm, Leeds won more than enough matches to guarantee promotion to the Premier League, it would have been so hollow were it not for the personalities and back stories of the people who made it possible and the people who made it worthwhile.

Being one of those tasked with writing about that promotion was a privilege, not only because it was an historic event in the life and times of a major city and its people, but because there were so many human-interest stories worth telling.

Kalvin Phillips, the Armley boy who became a hero to tens of thousands, League One veteran Luke Ayling who clawed his way back to the top and the mysterious man from Rosario himself Marcelo Bielsa, were just a few of those with fascinating journeys.

]What promotion and the men who achieved it meant to those who would have packed every Elland Road seat on the night the Championship trophy was presented, was an equally important tale to tell.

What it is that Leeds United means to normal folk from a grounded but ambitious city and far beyond its borders, will always be a story worth telling.

So last week it was an honour to be able to shed a little light on a man, a young man at that, whose life was lit up by the actions of his footballing heroes.

Adam Hall was a popular 30-year-old, a South Stand season-ticket holder and a lifelong White whose story was hard to ignore. He had been hit by a cancer diagnosis. His was pancreatic cancer, one of the most vicious and aggressive types of that awful disease, but he was fighting to remain himself in the midst of life-changing devastation. He was the jokester among his friends and the one making his family laugh, despite it all.

He had popped up in my Twitter mentions a few times, once to give a one-word appraisal of the rescheduling for broadcast of Leeds’ first Premier League trip to Villa Park. “B******s,” he replied.

He would tag his best friend Ella Spence to bring something Leeds related to her attention, like a clip of a rare burst of Bielsa laughter in a press conference. Then he popped up in my Timeline thanks to hundreds liking his blasts of determination during chemotherapy treatment.

On January 26 he posted a video message he had been sent by Liam Cooper, a simple message of encouragement. It’s still pinned to the top of Adam’s profile now.

It was one of several he was sent by Cooper and team-mates in response to attempts by Adam’s friends to orchestrate some sort of morale boost, at what was a difficult time.

It was a story worth telling so I asked Adam if I could write it and he loved the idea, because he wanted to say thank you. That was something he said a lot, in his messages.

They were the words he felt compelled to convey to the players, so he enlisted Ella’s help and we planned to print the story in the YEP.

“I can’t wait,” he messaged on February 1.

A day later he picked up a copy of the paper and saw himself, some beautiful words about him from his friend and his own words of gratitude to Cooper, Adam Forshaw, Joe Gelhardt and others. Later that night he slipped away.

The outpouring of love from Leeds United fans when the news of his passing broke has touched his family. Dad Derek, his heart bursting with pride as much as anything else, called it ‘mind blowing’ – the same words Adam used for Cooper’s simple act of kindness.

Football has the power to do this, to reach out and touch lives.

Something the giver, Cooper in this case, would consider so small and such little trouble, was to the receiver, Adam, so powerful and so special. Cooper is one of many at Leeds with a proven track record in delivering the powerful and the special to those who could do with it most.

Football is incredible because of the matches, the goals, the drama, the feats of physical human endeavour. Because it’s incredible, we want to share it with people. When we find those people, it’s even more incredible.

Elland Road would not be the awesome, intimidating, breathtaking cauldron it is on matchdays without people like Adam, roaring on people like Cooper.

The story of Leeds United would not be the glorious, insane rollercoaster ride that it has been for over a century without the contributions and stories of people like Adam and people like Cooper.

Together, the cast and the audience create the spectacle and a stage worth gracing.

Football is, more than ever, a business where patience is in short supply and undesired results breed dismay but through it all, the ups and downs, it will always have the power to unite people and create stories worth telling. Stories like Adam’s. His story is a reminder to enjoy our football and the people we enjoy it with.