Sir Bobby Charlton first got in touch with me not long after I came out of hospital in 2012. He had returned from a visit to Cambodia with a charity that campaigned on removing landmines and had been very moved by what he had seen. When he got back he set up a charity of his own, now called the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, focused on how to speed up the process of de-mining, technological advances and so on. The charity had heard my story [Duley stepped on a landmine while on a photographic assignment in Afghanistan, resulting in catastrophic injuries including triple amputation] and invited me to be an ambassador. I was back at home feeling completely lost and forgotten, so it was really fantastic to be included in all the decision making and policies for the charity.
A funny thing happened quite early in our friendship, which is a great example of the kind of man Sir Bobby was. I’d been invited to a big lunch event at the ground at Old Trafford, in the dining room there. There were a lot of football stars of the past and present and people from the sponsors who were helping to fund his NGO. I was sitting opposite Sir Bobby and during the meal, he leaned over and said, “Giles, I’d love to invite you to come and watch Manchester United play at home, you can take my wife Norma’s seat one week and we can watch the game together.” I looked across and said, “Thank you, but no, I won’t if that’s all right.”
