A different approach to fundraising

📅March 13, 2026

✍️Paulawheeleasy

As the word ‘Pelé’ is added to the Portuguese dictionary as an adjective that means ‘the best’, I decided, after our usual End Of Financial Year fundraising activity here in Australia, to take another, different approach.

I am selling all the remaining copies of the highly limited and ultra-luxurious Carnival edition of Pelé’s official autobiography. There is a logic behind this…

My twin passions: Football & Brazil

I describe myself as a football-crazy Brazilophile. I grew up in Camden, North London, and for more than 50 years have ardently followed my local team, Arsenal.

Then, in my early 20s, I spent two of the happiest years of my life, living and working in Rio de Janeiro. I met many wonderful locals there, and learnt to speak the language fluently.

In Brazil, Sunday is set aside for God…and for football

I appreciate the emotions that football provokes in Brazil (as their main Football Museum says “football is more than a sport: it is our heritage, part of our culture, and our identity”).

Press enter or click to view image in full size

“It could happen to anyone”

Fast forward to 1999: A life-changing car crash meant I became a wheelchair user, with multiple other severe disabilities, in a split second (I later received large compensation). In one moment I became a member of a club I never imagined I would join: that of “the disabled”).

Change can be a good thing

Life changed and I changed with it. Undeterred by the trauma of the accident and its setbacks, I set about rebuilding life, while searching for a renewed sense of purpose, from a wheelchair.

I discovered that life for a disabled person isn’t always a walk in the park. Misconceptions and prejudice still prevail; accessibility has improved a lot, but it’s still not a given, nor often is policy applied sensibly. And the bureaucracy of a disabled life can be crippling.

So I decided to change things and now dedicate life to creating a world where people with disabilities can participate and contribute fully, thereby defining themselves by what they can do, rather than what they can’t.

In 2005/6, I began to sit on UK panels on media portrayal, and also on soccer’s treatment of disabled people (this explains this photo of me at the new Wembley stadium, before it had even opened).

A friend launched his new publishing company by creating Carnival

When a friend showed me Carnival; the first book that his new publishing company had created, I spontaneously decided to put part of my accident compensation into buying all the remaining copies from him — because I could, and because I saw something of beauty in it, and something which united my twin passions.

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Carnival details every aspect of Pelé’s life through photographs and documents. These images include a rarely-seen collection of AndyWarhol prints of Pelé, and heroic shots of Pelé’s life on and off the pitch.

An object of beauty

It is truly a work of art; hand-bound, covered in Italian silk, and embroidered with calfskin leather lettering. It even comes with a pair of white gloves that are inscribed with Pelé’s number 10 on the back, and recommended for when handling rare pieces.

The rarest and most precious piece of football history in existence?

What makes Carnival so rare and exciting is the accompanying photographic print of the Brazilian World Cup winning team of 1970, lined up next to their final opponents, Italy. All of these 150 prints were hand-signed by all 10 surviving members of that team together with the signature of their manager, Mario Zagallo.

The beautiful team that played “The Beautiful Game”

This legendary, almost mythical team, that played the most popular sport in the world, reached its peak at the Azteca Stadium with a third World Cup win for Brazil.

The hunt for the signatures

There is a fascinating backstory to the hunt to track down the signatures of all the remaining players and their coach (a feat that had never been done before and will obviously never be repeated). In 2005 a team of UK journalists travelled to Brazil four times to procure the signatures of every ex-member of this legendary team. One of the journalists wrote up his experiences in The Independent newspaper. You can read this on the website https://www.thepelebook.com/.

Using my passions to do some good

I moved to Sydney in 2011, and in recent years have founded a charity there, for people like me with mobility challenges. It aims to deliver information for them about how they can best enjoy their day-to-day leisure activities.

Ever since I started WheelEasy, I’ve known the day would come when I could use my spontaneous investment in Carnival for the benefit of my charity. Now I’ve decided to sell them, and 50% of the sales will be donated to take WheelEasy’s Access Information Web App international.

I really want to use something that stemmed directly from my own personal tragedy, to positively affect the lives of the many millions of people who get stuck, give up searching for the info they need, and stay in — excluded from society.