‘They saved my life’: Grenfell Athletic create hopeful future despite pain of loss in tower fire

Rupert Taylor (centre) with Saturday team manager Paul Menacer (left) and player Joseph John. Menacer and John are both survivors of the 2017 fire at the tower, which can be seen in the background. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Every weekend they arrive with their boots and their grief, their studs and their memories of the Grenfell Tower fire which changed their lives for ever and killed 72 people. But the Grenfell Athletic football players, in two men’s teams and a women’s side, also bring hope, pride and even joy as they climb up their Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning amateur league tables with growing conviction that their club is a rising force.

Grenfell Athletic were founded by Rupert Taylor, a community leader and local inspiration, and Paul Menacer, who was asleep in the tower on the night of 14 June 2017 when the building turned into a blazing inferno. Together, they started a football club to help their community cope with the devastating loss.