UAE Rugby and Dubai Exile show support for Jonathan Beeton through fundraiser
Jonathan Beeton, injured from a boating accident was honoured by his team members, the Dubai Exiles, and the UAE rugby through a fundraiser.
Beeton, a South African born player, was seriously injured while he was attending a birthday celebration, thrown on a boat by his friend on June 17. The accident resulted in injuries to the head and neck, resulting in a coma. The player lies in the Intensive
Care Unit (ICU) of Dubai’s Rashid Hospital. The doctors have said that he might not recover from the coma and injuries because his brain is not registering any activity.
Beeton was previously an Engineer and has just recently joined the Dubai Exiles, the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) rugby team, playing all the home matches, and the recent Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Asian 5 Nations (A5N) Top Five 2011
tournament. Dubai Exile finished in the third position in the A5N 2011 event.
More popularly and affectionately known as Studente, Beeton initially started off in the Dubai Exiles as their scrum-half. Before taking up the centre position, he was held the wing position in the squad. He is called the ‘jack of all trades’ on the Dubai
Exile’s Profiles’ page on-line, due to these changes in position and is hailed as an exceptional and a well-rounded player. As a result of his versatility as a player, he was honoured with the Men’s Player of the Year Trophy for the season 2010-11.
At this time, Tammy, Beeton’s wife of six months, and his family are being supported by his Exile teammates. Showing his support for Beeton and family, a teammate Mike Riley has stated, “Jon is an exceptional player for Exiles and this news comes as a massive
blow…We are all devastated.”
In fact, two of the Exile players David Vittes and Mike Cox-Hill, along with the Exile’s club chairman, Mike Wolff, planned to help Beeton and his family through organising a fundraiser on July 8. This fundraiser, called ‘Celebrating Studente’, included
a Brunch, along with a public sale of several game pieces, and finally followed by a rugby match of the UAE against the Dubai Exiles, held at 7he Sevens stadium.
The UAE team was captained by Cox-Hill, who led them to a win of 43-21. Acknowledging his win, Cox-Hill stated, “We’re a tight-knit community, the rugby community and that embraces all creeds, colours, religions…We’ve got guys from Dragons, Hurricanes, Wasps,
TOA, Frogs, Abu Dhabi, and Exiles of course so that’s pretty much a UAE force…To have them come out and to support the event, not knowing what the outcome may be, it speaks volumes about Jon and who Jon is.”
With the help of the players and rugby fans, funds of about Dh 250,000 were accumulated as an outcome of the event.
Jonathan Beeton family is extremely overwhelmed by and thankful of the response received during the fundraiser. The family and Beeton’s team and fans are all keeping a vigil for the injured player and are hoping for him to get better.
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