Raheem Sterling tribute "a pleasant surprise," says Damary Dawkins's father | Football News

Raheem Sterling's tribute to a young player who died of leukemia was a "pleasant surprise" for the family, said the young man's father.

Damary Dawkins died last Sunday from a stem cell transplant shortly after Christmas.

The English striker Sterling raised his shirt after scoring his second goal in England's 5-0 win over the Czech Republic, revealing a photo of him and Damary.

The 13-year-old, with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of nine, played in the Crystal Palace development team.

"It was a pleasant surprise," said Damary's father Tony Dawkins.

"I knew that they were talking because [Sterling] went down to the hospital, played billiards together and apparently exchanged their numbers.

"It was very, very touching and fit, I know that Damary touched his heart."

Damary underwent intensive chemotherapy as a result of his diagnosis but, as a result of a relapse in 2018, his family was informed that he would need a donor for a procedure whose rate of success was 50%.

A worldwide search for a bone marrow donor of Afro-Caribbean descent began and was supported by a tweet from Sterling last July.

Although his transplant was successful, Damary recidivated and was admitted to hospital, but died on Sunday, March 17.

"I thought I had to do something to try to make his family smile," said Sterling ITV.

Mr. Dawkins said that Damary's death was "devastating" and paid tribute to his son, who played football for two years while he was undergoing cancer treatment.

"He fought to the end and I call him a soldier, I take my hat off him and I have only respect for him," Dawkins said.

"Nobody knew until I told someone that he had cancer, they would never have believed it.

"He never complained, he never moaned, he continued to do everything in his power and to do what he had to do.

"He never really thought of himself, he just thought of others."

A GoFundMe page created to help Damary's family with burial expenses received more than £ 3,000 in donations after Sterling's tribute.