Meet your Fan of the week-
Hi, I’m Samantha Rees, call me Sam!
I was brought up by my mam with my two brothers. My mam always had a love of Newcastle but due to bringing up 3 children finances never stretched to going to games.
As a teenager, I did loads of jobs. The first money I earned, I roped a friend into getting a train into Newcastle for the game. I can’t remember which game it was, but I remember going to the turnstile and paying my money and standing at the Leazes End. I could hardly see or barely breathe I was that excited. I caught the nufc bug that day. Every Saturday after that I went, my poor mate wasn’t that keen!
At 20 I moved to London to work, I lived there for about 16 years. I always managed to get to away games in London. One game that sticks in my mind is Charlton v Newcastle in 97, my Millwall mate came along and not long after that Kevin Keegan resigned. I have photos of myself with many heroes including Shearer, Sir Les, Beardsley etc.
In 1997 I had my son, for the first two years of his life he was subjected to two FA cup finals and me screaming! Once we moved back up to the northeast the first thing he asked for was a season ticket.
Away games became a must, we travelled all over following NUFC, for 2 seasons I worked on supporters coaches. My son went to study and work in Poland, so I kept his season ticket going. He met a Ukrainian girl whilst in Poland which 3 years later resulted in her coming over here to live and work.
Due to the war in Ukraine, her mother and grandmother and her 14-year-old cousin came over to live with us to stay safe. 14-year-old, Illia always wanted to go to a premier league game but never thought he’d be here because of war. I got him a ticket for the Leicester game. When some of my nufc friends found out he was going, they very kindly bought him shirts, scarfs etc, he was blown away by the sea of black and white and the singing and flags. When we won the game in extra time he was on his feet along with everyone else celebrating. I was so choked up to see this as I was so proud he was loving it but also that he’d come so far to fulfil his dream. On the last day of the season, he also attended and watched in awe the stadium so alive with hope and belief.
I’m so proud and love him so much and now he has the TOON bug.