ABSTRACT
George Wilson Weir, affectionately known as Doddie, is a former Rugby Union international lock forward for Scotland and the British Lions. He also played club rugby in Scotland for Stewart’s Melville RFC, Melrose RFC and Borders Reivers RFC, and in England for Newcastle Falcons. More recently, he has come to the fore for revealing he has motor neurone disease (MND). This chapter examines how Doddie has leveraged his position as an athlete to become an activist. Doddie’s activism has been referred to as soft activism, defined by Funnell (2018) as activism that is ‘less aggressive and far more persuasive and persistent’. Doddie uses his sporting celebrity to raise funds for charity and awareness about MND. He has also capitalized on his name and rugby shirt number through social media and on his charity website, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. This chapter also considers Doddie’s use of storytelling with a narrative of how MND has affected his physical strength, but not his mental strength and ability to fight the disease through his campaigning. This further builds on the social capital of his sporting reputation and is an excellent example of what Chouliaraki (2012) has described as the ‘theater of pity’.
