A teenage photographer who shares a rare syndrome with just 14 other people in the world was overjoyed to spend a day snapping Everton FC’s win over Arsenal and meeting the players. Dylan Lombard, from Glasgow, was a special guest of the club earlier this month.
The keen snapper's football-loving dad, Roy, contacted staff to ask if his son could visit the club as part of their nationwide quest to visit and photograph stadia. The 19-year-old was welcomed to Everton’s iconic Goodison Park by the Liverpool club’s fan engagement team and was given the opportunity to shadow club photographer Tony McArdle.
Dylan, who was diagnosed as deaf aged three, worked alongside Tony to capture a Premier League matchday at the famous stadium. His big day out included everything from player arrivals, meeting club legends and taking pictures of the match itself - including the celebrations as new manager Sean Dyche secured his first win against league leaders Arsenal.
Dylan - who is autistic and has an exceptionally rare syndrome known as MDP, mandibular dysplasia with deafness and progeroid features - capped his memorable day by meeting Everton’s players following the game.
Roy, Dylan’s dad, explained: “My son has a lot of additional needs. He is autistic and has an exceptionally rare syndrome, which only 15 people in the world have. Essentially, MDP means that fatty tissue doesn’t develop under the skin, but develops around internal organs instead, leading to less muscle mass and mobility issues.
“It doesn’t inhibit his life in any way though and he still gets involved in anything he can. He is really into street photography and that’s where his talent lies. He just used to take himself off for walks in the local area as his way of decompressing and dealing with things.
“He’d show us these pictures, which were incredible and it became a way for Dylan to show us how he sees the world, in many ways. It all grew from there and now he goes to college to study photography.
“One of our shared passions is football and over time, we are on a long-term mission to get to all of the major grounds in the UK and beyond. Everton fully embraced that and once this opportunity was presented to us, we grabbed it.”
Roy, who recalls the great Everton teams of yesteryear under Howard Kendall, added: “I was really, really keen to go to Goodison. The teams of the 1980s were giants in my eyes, so I always wanted to visit the stadium at some point and with the new stadium being built, I wanted to get there before it’s gone forever.
“We just had an amazing day. We received an offer from the club’s accessibility team and I can’t thank them and the fan engagement team’s praises enough, because what they did for Dylan was out of this world.
“They hooked us up with Tony, the club photographer and Dylan was able to shadow him on work experience for the whole day. We were shown around the stadium, got to meet everyone beforehand and the result just added to the occasion. It felt like a real privilege to see Sean Dyche’s first win.”
Dylan was able to photograph all the key events, including James Tarkowski’s crucial header that raised the roof at Goodison on February 4. And the duo’s memorable day didn’t end there, with the chance for some special snaps with members of the first team squad.
“The day just kept getting better and better,” explained Roy. “The fan engagement team told us to hang around after the game and before we knew it, we were meeting a few of the players. Dylan got to meet them all, and it was just such a day to remember.
"Of all the grounds we’ve been round, I can say hand on heart that’s the most electric atmosphere we have experienced. There were so many elements that came together on the day and what the folk at Everton did for us was way beyond the atmosphere and the occasion. We can’t thank them enough!”
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