Rugby-mad lad born without an arm is set to carry ball out for World Cup final
- 7 months ago
A rugby-mad Brit lad born without his left hand has shared his delight at being chosen to bring the ball onto the pitch - for the World Cup final.
Jacob Pickering, 14, felt ‘shocked’ to be given the prestigious role in Paris, France, by tournament sponsors.
And he hopes he'll be stepping out with his team, England, at the start of the game.
He said: “It would be amazing to walk out with England. I’d back them all the way to reach the final.”
The schoolboy was born without part of his arm due to amniotic band syndrome, where fibrous bands in the womb get tangled around a foetus.
But Jacob never let his disability get in the way of his life and fell in love with rugby when he was asked to play for his local team aged just seven.
The teen was an England team mascot for a Six Nations game at Twickenham three years ago and proudly wore his blue and white bionic prosthetic arm on the pitch.
And this year, he’s been immortalized in a 7ft high statue and appeared in tv commercials as part of World Cup sponsor Land Rover Defender’s ad campaign.
But Jacob was stunned to learn just a few weeks ago that he’d be stepping out onto the Stade de France pitch with the match ball for the final on October 28.
He added: “It was shocking, but it’s very good. I wasn’t expecting that. It’s really, really exciting. They told my mum on a phone call.
“I thought, ‘Wow, how did they pick me?’ I never thought it was going to be this big, but it’s been cool – really cool.
“When we were driving through France, I was on my phone and I looked up and there was me on the side of a building. And I was like, 'Wow, that’s amazing'.
“It’s been really, really exciting.”
Jacob’s mum Kathryn Litherland, 42, from Blackburn, Lancs., found out her son wouldn't have a left forearm during a scan when she was 20 weeks pregnant.
And though she initially had “so many worries”, she was left reassured after speaking with specialists and other families whose kids had similar conditions.
Later, she and Jacob’s dad, David Pickering, 44, encouraged him to pursue several different competitive sports.
But he only got into rugby due to a chance meeting at his football club.
She said: “He started playing football. He was doing okay, but he was getting to the point where he was saying, ‘I don’t want to go’, and we didn’t want to push him.
“Jacob’s now coach was at the training session, and he said, ‘Bring him to Blackburn Rugby Club’. So we took him down and he absolutely loved it.
“He started at Blackburn Rugby Club, and I kid you not, he was up and he was dressed and he was ready to go to rugby, and we were like ‘Wow, this is brilliant’.”
Kathryn said Jacob, who is a winger, was given £11,000 for a prosthetic arm - produced by Open Bionics - by philanthropist Tej Kohli at the end of 2019.
And when he was invited to be a mascot at an England game a few months later, he was pictured walking out of the tunnel wearing the amazing mechanical limb.
But his achievements took centre stage again when Land Rover Defender asked him to be part of their World Cup ad campaign earlier this year.
And he then got to rub shoulders with several major celebrities at the tournament's star-studded opening event.
Kathryn said: “He’s just been on the most amazing adventure. Initially, he went down to London and they did the photographs to make the 3D 7ft figure of him.
“Then me and Jacob went to Nice, in France, that was brilliant. And they came up to us to do some filming. One of the clips was shot in Southport.
“At the World Cup launch, we were told we’d be walking across the ‘black carpet’.
“And he met everybody. Kano was there, along with Idris Elba, and Jason Fox. And Jacob really, really likes Jason Fox, and he was lovely. So he was chatting to him.”
Kathryn said despite being spotted on the front covers of papers and billboards as far away as Australia, Jacob’s fame hadn’t gone to his head.
She said: “Jacob has just had so many compliments from everybody. And I think it’s because he’s such a humble little boy.
“When people have come up to him at school, he’s said, ‘Oh no, it’s not me’.
“There have also been times when I’ve asked him: ‘Do you wish you had both your hands’ and he’s said, ‘No, I don’t’.
"He has also never felt any different and never been made to feel any different.
And he's never let anything get in his way.
“He never misses training, he never has done. He goes week in, week out.”
Kathryn added: "I really hope Jacob being a trailblazer for Landrover Defender, and supporting the Rugby World Cup with a limb difference, will encourage others in similar situations."
Jacob Pickering, 14, felt ‘shocked’ to be given the prestigious role in Paris, France, by tournament sponsors.
And he hopes he'll be stepping out with his team, England, at the start of the game.
He said: “It would be amazing to walk out with England. I’d back them all the way to reach the final.”
The schoolboy was born without part of his arm due to amniotic band syndrome, where fibrous bands in the womb get tangled around a foetus.
But Jacob never let his disability get in the way of his life and fell in love with rugby when he was asked to play for his local team aged just seven.
The teen was an England team mascot for a Six Nations game at Twickenham three years ago and proudly wore his blue and white bionic prosthetic arm on the pitch.
And this year, he’s been immortalized in a 7ft high statue and appeared in tv commercials as part of World Cup sponsor Land Rover Defender’s ad campaign.
But Jacob was stunned to learn just a few weeks ago that he’d be stepping out onto the Stade de France pitch with the match ball for the final on October 28.
He added: “It was shocking, but it’s very good. I wasn’t expecting that. It’s really, really exciting. They told my mum on a phone call.
“I thought, ‘Wow, how did they pick me?’ I never thought it was going to be this big, but it’s been cool – really cool.
“When we were driving through France, I was on my phone and I looked up and there was me on the side of a building. And I was like, 'Wow, that’s amazing'.
“It’s been really, really exciting.”
Jacob’s mum Kathryn Litherland, 42, from Blackburn, Lancs., found out her son wouldn't have a left forearm during a scan when she was 20 weeks pregnant.
And though she initially had “so many worries”, she was left reassured after speaking with specialists and other families whose kids had similar conditions.
Later, she and Jacob’s dad, David Pickering, 44, encouraged him to pursue several different competitive sports.
But he only got into rugby due to a chance meeting at his football club.
She said: “He started playing football. He was doing okay, but he was getting to the point where he was saying, ‘I don’t want to go’, and we didn’t want to push him.
“Jacob’s now coach was at the training session, and he said, ‘Bring him to Blackburn Rugby Club’. So we took him down and he absolutely loved it.
“He started at Blackburn Rugby Club, and I kid you not, he was up and he was dressed and he was ready to go to rugby, and we were like ‘Wow, this is brilliant’.”
Kathryn said Jacob, who is a winger, was given £11,000 for a prosthetic arm - produced by Open Bionics - by philanthropist Tej Kohli at the end of 2019.
And when he was invited to be a mascot at an England game a few months later, he was pictured walking out of the tunnel wearing the amazing mechanical limb.
But his achievements took centre stage again when Land Rover Defender asked him to be part of their World Cup ad campaign earlier this year.
And he then got to rub shoulders with several major celebrities at the tournament's star-studded opening event.
Kathryn said: “He’s just been on the most amazing adventure. Initially, he went down to London and they did the photographs to make the 3D 7ft figure of him.
“Then me and Jacob went to Nice, in France, that was brilliant. And they came up to us to do some filming. One of the clips was shot in Southport.
“At the World Cup launch, we were told we’d be walking across the ‘black carpet’.
“And he met everybody. Kano was there, along with Idris Elba, and Jason Fox. And Jacob really, really likes Jason Fox, and he was lovely. So he was chatting to him.”
Kathryn said despite being spotted on the front covers of papers and billboards as far away as Australia, Jacob’s fame hadn’t gone to his head.
She said: “Jacob has just had so many compliments from everybody. And I think it’s because he’s such a humble little boy.
“When people have come up to him at school, he’s said, ‘Oh no, it’s not me’.
“There have also been times when I’ve asked him: ‘Do you wish you had both your hands’ and he’s said, ‘No, I don’t’.
"He has also never felt any different and never been made to feel any different.
And he's never let anything get in his way.
“He never misses training, he never has done. He goes week in, week out.”
Kathryn added: "I really hope Jacob being a trailblazer for Landrover Defender, and supporting the Rugby World Cup with a limb difference, will encourage others in similar situations."