Incredible effort to honour electrocuted footballer

A GROUP of five women will run the Edinburgh Marathon later this month dressed as cartoon superheroes The Incredibles in memory of a football starlet killed in a training ground tragedy.

Craig Gowans, a 17-year-old Falkirk defender, was electrocuted in July 2005, two weeks into his professional contract.

The former Stewart’s Melville College pupil was pushing a six-metre-high net, designed to catch stray footballs, at the club’s training ground in Grangemouth, when a metal pole came into contact with 11,000-volt overhead wires.

His family and friends set up the Craig Gowans Memorial Fund to help charities including the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.

Gemma Maxwell, one of his school friends, said: “A day has not gone by that I have not thought of Craig or been reminded by him to live my life to the full.

“I could not think of a more worthy cause to support.

“I am running along with four other girls dressed as The Incredibles. We are aiming for around the four-hour mark.”

Craig had just started a two-year apprenticeship with Falkirk when he was killed.

Donations can be made via the JustGiving page, The Craig Gowans Memorial Fund for Sick Kids Friends Foundation.