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Darren has gone from being a drug addict in his youth to be the organiser of one of the biggest festivals of disability football in the country. This on top of running his own club “Club Doncaster Titans” which he started from scratch in 2014 with just 8 players, he now has over 140 players attending one or more of several weekly training sessions – eg. Down’s Syndrome; Adult Inclusion; Junior Inclusion and Mental Health Sufferers.

Darren’s life was turned around in 2003 when he met his current wife Sharon who supports him with the football club who had already got two sons from a previous marriage, Jordan his eldest son has autism and Darren tried lots of local teams for Jordan to play in as a goalkeeper but soon found things wasn’t quite right and this prompted Darren in to making a promise to set up his own team and show how he thought an inclusive club should be run, which grew into Doncaster Titans.

With all Darren’s hard work alongside working in full time employment Doncaster Titans grew year on year and formed a very strong partnership with the local pro club Doncaster Rovers and their community foundation changing the club name to the name it is known has now Club Doncaster Titans and embracing the foundations logo around his own.

Club Doncaster Titans now boasts 3 adult teams at 7 a side, 3 adult teams at 5 a side, 3 junior teams and 2 adult 11 a side team’s. The main aim, to offer the opportunity to anyone who wishes to play the beautiful game. Darren has done all this whilst battling with his own health concerns of lung fibrosis which was diagnosed soon after launching the club and is not expecting to live more than a few years but refuses to give in.

He is determined to leave a legacy behind for his community to enjoy for years to come and is working hard to ensure that the club that he has established is self-sustainable. As well as all this he ensures that adults with disabilities have opportunities to gain coaching qualifications and encouraged my son, Archie (who is autistic) to qualify as a Level 1 FA coach and coach the juniors as a role model even though Archie had only joined Titans in January 2019. aged just 17.

Despite developing a network of coaching Staff, Darren is involved with all the Titans’ teams. Weekends are devoted to arranging transport to tournaments (average 1 per month) as far afield as Wales and London. In August 2019, Club Doncaster Titans held its fourth annual tournament with more than 60 teams from across the UK – as far afield as Jersey.

Close to 500 people were able to pull on their club’s shirt and play for a chance to be crowned champions at the end of a fun-filled day in the glorious sunshine. Teams battled it out in an eight-league format, with eight league winners being announced at the end of the day.

The hugely popular tournament, which takes place outside the Keepmoat Stadium, allows both mental and physical health sufferers the chance to be part of a wider footballing community. As if this is not enough, Darren also coordinates the monthly fixtures for adults with disabilities has he is league secretary for the South Yorkshire Ability Counts league.