Michael Harrington wins Disability Champion Award

Last week saw Crystal Palace F.C support disability charity, Level Playing Field through a week of action highlighting the importance of supporting disabled members of our community.

The week saw the club publicly back the Level Playing Field campaign, which seeks to remove barriers at all sporting events for fans with disabilities. They aim to ensure that:

• all fans can enjoy an equal experience at live sports events
• all stadia and sports venues are fully accessible and inclusive
• all customer and/or fan services are equal and inclusive
• disabled people are seen as customers with a commercial value

As a part of the Level Playing Field week of action, Crystal Palace CEO Phil Alexander presented Disability Champion awards to five worthy winners.

One of these winners, recognised for his continuous hard work and efforts in supporting disabled members of our community, is Palace for Life Disability Manager and Deputy Head of Sports & Wellbeing, Michael Harrington.

What makes this award more special is that it was a total surprise to Michael on the day, who was attending the presentation to support other award winners.

On receiving the Disability Champion award, Michael said: “I am proud and delighted to be honoured in this way. To receive a ‘Palace for All’ Disability Champion award means a lot to me as I strongly feel that people with a disability do sometimes need that little bit of extra help to allow them to live their lives as they want to, rather than as they feel they have to.

“For me to be able to help with this in anyway is very rewarding, but it would not be possible without all the continued help I receive from my colleagues at the Palace for Life Foundation and all the families, carers, friends and partners that work closely together across South London.”