Donations, support pour in for rugby referee’s son fighting heart disease

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Donations and messages of support are pouring in for the 2-year-old son of a rugby referee who is fighting a deadly heart disease.

Shuki is the son of 34-year-old Akihisa Aso, who served as the referee during the 90th national high-school rugby championship. The championship ended on Jan. 8 in a 31-31 draw between Toin Gakuen of Kanagawa Prefecture and Higashi Fukuoka High School of Fukuoka Prefecture, with both teams being declared champions.

After the Mainichi Shimbun (Japanese edition) and other news outlets reported that during the championship’s closing ceremony, both teams’ captains presented Aso with boxes of money collected for Shuki, a foundation set up to pay for a heart transplant for Shuki received numerous messages of support.

According to the organization’s office in the city of Fukuoka, the office was closed on Jan. 9 and 10, but when the fund’s organizers returned they found around 40 messages left on the answering machine, and on Jan. 11 they received around 60 more messages of encouragement. In addition to rugby fans, those sending the messages included people with physical disabilities and those with the same heart disease — dilated cardiomyopathy — as Shuki. The office said that many of the messages have included offers of donations, and the fund group is approaching their goal of 150 million yen.

“Before we were only getting one or two inquiries a day. We’re thankful for the increase in support,” said a fund spokesperson.

The Sports News Department of the Mainichi Newspapers’ Osaka Head Office also received a sealed letter containing a donation of 5,000 yen on Jan. 11. The sender, a 70-year-old male Osaka resident who played rugby in high-school and is still a fan of the sport, expressed his respect for the rugby players’ charitable act, saying “it’s not often that players do such things.”

Aso, meanwhile, is preparing to head abroad to the U.S., where he hopes Shuki can soon receive a heart transplant operation.

“In these three years, the players didn’t just learn to play rugby, they also learned to care for others, and I believe this is what allowed them to become champions. I am also thankful to the public for sharing their sympathy,” said Aso.