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For Manchester Utd star Ryan Giggs having a black father meant he suffered racial abuse as a child.

“My dad was quite a famous rugby player where we were growing up. Everyone knew that, and I used to get quite a bit of stick at school because of the colour of his skin.

“It’s obviously not nice, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. My way of coping was to keep it to myself. I was a quiet, shy boy and what I should have done is tell the teachers.

“But I didn’t even tell my parents, I just got on with it. I knew that I should have told someone but I went about it the wrong way.

“It made me feel that I was different, because I felt that I should be fitting in with all these other kids at the school and I couldn’t.

“It was especially difficult at my school. There just weren’t that many pupils from different backgrounds. We didn’t have many Chinese, Indian or black kids.

“If there had been six or seven of kids in the class who were black or mixed race that would have helped.

“It’s really important to speak up and get it out in the open.

“Hopefully we can eradicate racism and treat everyone as equals.”