Many thanks from the bottom of my heart to the directors, all the staff and players of our first team, reserves team and women’s team for wearing black arm bands in memory of my mum Mona over the weekend.

It was emotional and appreciated and I felt incredibly proud of our great club. The messages of sympathy and support that I’ve received from so many people have been inspiring, heartwarming and comforting.

My mum died peacefully at 3:27pm on Saturday with me by her side. The staff at Knightswood Care Home in Blackrod, where she’s been resident for the past seven years as her dementia symptoms have steadily deteriorated have been amazing. They say that dementia is like a long goodbye and that best sums up this horrible disease. Even though you prepare yourself for the inevitable it’s still a huge shock when it happens.

She’d have taken great pleasure in that I managed to watch Leigh v Salford later and on Sunday that I was able to watch the women’s team at York. She was proud of my passion for the club and especially so when I was invited to become chairman in 2018.

My mum was 99 and lived a long and happy life. She was a wonderful person who was always immaculately dressed, cheerful and hardworking with a wide circle of friends and a fantastic attitude to life. For nearly 60 years she was married to my dad Derek who passed away in 2011 and they had a wonderful life together in which their joint love of sport and Leigh played a big part.

My mum was a native of Howe Bridge, daughter of a coal miner and began her working life as a bus conductress with Lancashire United Transport during the war.
She was proudly at Wembley in 1971 with me and my dad and even when severely afflicted by her illness would always ask me if I’d seen Alex Murphy and Kevin Ashcroft.

Each time we have won a trophy in the last few years I’ve taken it to show my mum and her face lit up with happiness and pride.

It’s made me determined to enjoy every day and to tell people close to me that I love them.

God bless and thanks so much to everyone involved in our wonderful club. It really is a huge family and at times like this it shows me, though I already knew, what a privilege it is to be chairman.

Best wishes and lots of love Mike ❤️🙏🤲x