A local para-athlete from Stockport has been selected for the British Para Ice Hockey squad ahead of the 2024 World Championships and is now in a race to raise enough funds to be able to make it to the tournament in Norway.
So, let’s see if we can help him and some other members of his team out, shall we?
Offerton native Dean Lahan plays for the Manchester Mayhem Para Ice Hockey team over in Altrincham but is also known across Greater Manchester and parts of the UK as the ‘Fingerless Magician’, having sadly lost many of his digits along with his right leg through meningitis as a toddler.
Having featured in multiple stories throughout his youth and become a familiar face online through his impressive card tricks, the SK-born magician and para-athlete has once again been selected by Great Britain for Pool B of the World Para Ice Hockey Championships — but there’s a lot more to it than that.
As is unfortunately the case for many people at this level of sport, especially amongst the para-athletic community, there just isn’t enough funding to pay for everyone’s flights, accommodation, insurance etc, so Dean, like many of his teammates, has had to set up a fundraiser to hopefully pay his way.
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Writing on his GoFundMe page, the 26-year-old wrote: “I have been selected to represent GB at the upcoming World Para Ice Hockey Pool B World Championships in Skien, Norway from 12-21 April 2024.
“During this tournament, we are competing against countries including Norway, Germany, Sweden, Kazakhstan and France. Our GB team is currently unfunded so all athletes including myself are responsible for self-funding their trip and associated expenses through either personal contributions or personal fundraising.”
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Explaining his target, Lahan goes on to explain that “the cost of the trip for me will be around £2000 (to cover accommodations/food/local transport in addition to my flights and associated travel insurance)” — a sizeable financial obstacle for anyone, let alone those who have to make concessions due to disability.
Dean Lahan playing forward for Manchester Mayhem.Dean was first selected for GB back in 2019.Credit: Manchester Mayhem/Facebook
Speaking to The Manc, Dean explained that “one of the main challenges is gathering these funds; we compete against other countries which are fully funded and play ice hockey as their job, whereas us GB players have to work full-time jobs as well as play ice hockey and train in the gym often late at night.
“I like to keep busy and am always looking for ways to challenge myself, training daily in the gym around 5:30am and with the world championships coming up I am currently training twice a day — this means my magic has had to take a back seat and is often done at weekends, weddings or private parties.
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“I’ve been playing para ice hockey for coming up on nine years and still love the sport to this day, but there are around 30 in the men’s GB programme and of the 15 rostered for the competition roughly half are in need of funding.”
When asked why supporting events like this is so important, his response was as simple and inspiring: “Without the funding, a lot of athletes all over the country will be able to compete in a sport they love and it would be an absolute honour for any of us to play internationally for our country again.”
Having nearly amassed half of his £2k target already with just over a month until the World Championships start, Dean and others like Josh Davies, Damien Barker, Jodi Hill and fellow Mayhem player Mark Colquitt are hoping to raise enough money in time for everyone to travel.
The time, money and graft that all of these wonderful individuals put in outside of everyday life is truly inspiring and serves as a reminder that more funding is still needed across various sporting disciplines.
If you want to help do your bit, you can help donate to Dean’s fundraiser HERE and we wish the British Para Ice Hockey team all the best for this year’s tournament.
Featured Images — Dean Lahan (via GoFundMe) British Para Ice Hockey
Sport
Scott Carson reveals important behind-the-scenes role at Manchester City
Danny Jones
Recently retired goalkeeper Scott Carson has revealed the unsung but important role he had behind the scenes during his time at Manchester City.
The 40-year-old ex-pro called time on his playing career after more than two decades and six years in sky blue, having made just two appearances for the club during a period in which they won 11 trophies.
Carson officially hung up his gloves on 23 October 2025, following his contract expiration, and since then has found himself carrying out a number of interviews, including one with Fozcast, hosted by another fellow shotstopper who spent time in Manchester, Ben Foster.
While lots of people have joked that he did very little to earn the flurry of medals so late in his career, or at the very least theorised as to what he actually did behind the scenes, he’s now been more open than ever about the largely sidelined spell.
🗣️ "When people had to be serious, they were serious"
Scott Carson reveals what it was like working under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. pic.twitter.com/HZGjVkrso0
Sitting down with Sky Sports, the Cumbrian keeper confirmed that initially it was, indeed, just a case of serving as not even as a rotation option but a back-up third choice.
Nevertheless, he’s an experienced veteran with 11 different teams on his CV, including Leeds United, Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday – though only a handful of games for each – as well as half a century of appearances at Wigan Athletic before his longest stints at the likes of West Brom and Derby County.
While this job usually involves purely training, helping keep other players sharp, he says that after settling into the Etihad Campus a little more, he found himself performing a much more influential, albeit largely unsung, role in the background.
Getting validation from manager Pep Guardiola that the side “needed more of that”, he essentially ended up providing valuable seniority and motivation amongst the group, despite only playing a couple of times.
Bidding farewell to the Whitehaven-born cult hero, the club wrote: “During his time at City, Carson has been praised by goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor and peers Ederson and Stefan Ortega Moreno for his work ethic and the effect of his positive attitude amongst the group.”
Speaking about Guardiola specifically, he hailed the Catalan coach for having overhauled modern football in this country, as well as giving him the secondary task of supporting his teammates, be it via boosting morale and ‘picking up’ those left frustrated by matchday selection.
As well as noting his widely publicised detail-oriented nature, he also made a point of recognising that Pep himself was “evolving each season”, whether or not everyone else saw it.
In short, he said he has helped improve the quality of the Premier League and, more specifically, that he helped redefine what a goalkeeper can be in the division.
You can watch the rest of the interview in full down below.
Manchester set to host five UEFA EURO 2028 matches – including England’s opening game
Emily Sergeant
Manchester has been confirmed to be the host of five matches at the upcoming UEFA EURO tournament in 2028.
This also, crucially, would include England‘s opening match, should they qualify directly.
The joint announcement by Manchester City and Manchester City Council today comes as UEFA has now released key details about the UK & Ireland 2028 competition – which, as it stands, is less than 1,000 days away.
It has been confirmed that the Etihad Stadium – which is known as The City of Manchester Stadium when not relating to Manchester City football club – will host four Group Stage matches across four different groups, offering both local and international football fans the chance to see a range of different national teams in action.
On top of this, Manchester will also be the host a Round of 16 knockout match as the tournament progresses.
UEFA EURO 2028 will kick off at the National Stadium of Wales in Cardiff on Friday 9 June 2028, culminating in the Final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 9 July 2028.
Across the UK and Ireland, nine stadiums will host matches during the upcoming tournament – with other northern stadiums including Everton Stadium in Liverpool, and St James’ Park over in Newcastle.
More than three million tickets – as sold by UEFA – are set to be available for the tournament, and more information on this will be issued in due course.
Following an independent assessment, UEFA EURO 2028 is expected to generate up to £3.6 billion in socio-economic benefits for the UK and Ireland between 2028 and 2031, with benefits including job creation, regional growth, and direct spending from international visitors.
The countdown has started in Manchester for #EURO2028!
Five matches are scheduled to be played here – including England's opener if they qualify – and more than 300,000 fans will be welcomed to the city in June 2028.
Danny Jones -
6th March 2024 
