Members News: Oggy’s Son’s Charity Quest To Fill In Their European Family History
Steve in 1987
Yesterday we congratulated CCFC Legend Steve Ogrizovic on recently becoming a grandad. However Oggy’s wider family has also been busy recently and in the news.
Yesterday’s Daily Mail covered the interesting story about Oggy’s son Chris and his cousin Sam setting out on a 1,500 mile quest for charity to retrace the steps of their grandfather (Oggy’s dad) Nicola who under constant danger fled the Nazis across Europe from his Yugoslavian home in 1942 after his own dad was killed. The 14 year old was eventually captured and sent to an Italian POW camp, eventually being brought back to the UK when he was saved by British soldiers after the war.
Maureen & Nicola surrounded by grandkids Charlie Chis & Sam
In honour of their grandfather’s incredible escape, the two grandsons are retracing the 1,500 mile journey he made from Brlog to Britain, but in the opposite direction and inviting donations to help fund the trip. ‘We want to walk as little as possible. We are trying to replicate it as much as we can with no planning, no maps, no planes and only £20’. Sam added: ‘At the end of the war he got brought back to the UK and he never found out what happened to his mother or two sisters. There is a little town near my grandfather’s village that has all the birth, death and marriage records so we can look at that to see where our family went.’
The pair are hoping to add to the £3,000 they have already raised for the Alzheimer’s Society. To donate to ‘Papa’s Journey’ go to www.papasjourney.com or www.justgiving.com/papasjourney.
PCsChristopher Dean & Oggy
Nicola settled in Ravenshead Nottinghamshire and became a miner. He lived there with his wife Maureen, now 83, until he died from Alzheimer’s last year aged 86. Oggy is one of their three children and became a PC in Notts before becoming a professional footballer with Chesterfield, Liverpool and Shrewsbury prior to coming to Highfield Road.
CCFPA’s Dean Nelson has supplied us with a photo (right) of Oggy in the Notts Constabulary (standing next to Christopher Dean who later became a world famous ice-skater with partner Jane Torvill)
