Disabled pensioner who had given up on ever seeing Leyton Orient play again bagged tickets for match

A pensioner with a life-limiting illness who never thought he would see the football team he’s supported his whole life play again, bagged tickets for a game during a respite stay at St Joseph’s Hospice.

Dennis Parrott, 73, a lifelong Orient fan now confined to a wheelchair, had found watching his team had become impossible.

But during a two-week stay at the hospice in Mare Street to give his wife Beverley a break, strikers David Mooney and Chris Dagnall came in to visit the patients, as they do twice a year.

Having told them he was a lifelong fan David Mooney presented him with a signed shirt, joking that he was going to sleep in it.

Leyton Orient then offered Dennis free tickets to the next home game, for which one of St Joseph’s volunteer taxi drivers, Dennis Ottolangui, picked him up from home and took him to the game, and healthcare assistant Saad went along as his carer.

At the match they enjoyed the best seats in the house and Dennis was presented with David Mooney’s match shirt.

Howard Gould, Leyton Orient community liaison officer said: “He was certainly the centre of attention and there were even members of the crowd with tears in their eyes when they saw David passing over his shirt to Dennis just before the kick-off.”