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Sarah Rhind and Joe Mearns are the reason football is called the ­beautiful game.

Their stories are more uplifting than any stepover or last-minute winner because they are living and breathing ­examples of the good that the sport can do.

Mainly because without it, they might not be living and breathing themselves.

The brave young Scots have overcome very different forms of adversity in their lives through the sport they love, and the dedicated work of staff at Celtic FC Foundation, who help thousands of people across Scotland and around the world every year.

You will struggle to find two more inspirational success stories than the hard work of Sarah and Joe, who went through the Foundation’s Cashback community scheme together three years ago.

Joe

Joe Mearns believes in the power of positivity.

He was born with no arms, a curvature of the spin and an incurable brain tumour, and after a 16th surgery had found himself hardly able to get out of bed.

But since signing up for a Celtic coaching scheme, he has found himself an incredible job, has moved in with his fiancee, and is even a legend at playing Fifa on the PlayStation.

It’s an incredible turnaround from three years ago when, at his lowest, he didn’t want to live.

One morning, he found the courage to get through the blackness and got himself referred to Celtic FC Foundation’s Cashback course.

He said: “It was hard for my mum and dad but they were brilliant and brought me up the same as my big brother and sister.

"They didn’t want me to be any different. They taught me how to use my feet and do everything for myself.”

Doctors discovered the benign tumour when he was 11 and recovering from the procedures was hard.

Joe said: “The worst one I had was when I was 17. I was in hospital for eight weeks.

“It made me depressed and I didn’t want to get out of my bed. I told my mum and dad I didn’t want to be here any more, but they and my brother and sister pushed me to keep going.”

Three years ago he was referred to Celtic.

He said: “One day on the course we went to a fire station and they showed us some training sewers they had, and asked for volunteers.

“I asked to go, and joked he could just fling me in head first. The guys said I must be very confident to say that, and that made me feel really good about myself.”

At the end of the course, Joe, from Tollcross, got a job as a community coach and hasn’t looked back.

He has just moved into a new house and got engaged to his girlfriend, and has big plans to continue his coaching and earn higher ranking UEFA licences.

He doesn’t let anything get in the way of life.

He said: “I always try to be positive. If I can do it, anybody can do it. You can be what you want to be. All you need is to put the effort in and push yourself.

“I’ve only believed that since I started working with Celtic. I want to be here for the rest of my life.”

Sarah

Sarah Rhind was in hell. She suffered from severe self-esteem issues throughout her childhood that she couldn’t shake.

By the time she was in secondary school, she was self-harming and became a heroin addict in her early 20s.

Despite a loving and supportive family, her world disintegrated and she was left not wanting to live.

That’s when she rediscovered the only pursuit that had given her any kind of happiness when she was a child.

Sarah, 34, from Aberdeen , said: “I never thought I was good at anything. But I was good at football and I loved it.

“There were a lot of years of just hating being me and it was all about trying to escape from it all.”

For several years, she had worked to complete a nursery nurse qualification and function as normally as possible while fighting an addiction, but things spiralled out of control and she became homeless.

“At my lowest point, I was terrified. My whole life revolved around drugs and finding money for drugs.

“I didn’t want to live. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t know how to fix things.”

When her loving father was killed in a car crash in 2013, Sarah managed to stay clean for seven weeks, proving to herself that she could make a change.

After entering rehab, she was given the opportunity to change when, two years later, she was referred to Street Soccer, the charity who help homeless people through football, and the Celtic FC Foundation.

She won a place in the Homeless World Cup squad for the Amsterdam tournament that summer, and then got a spot on the 10-week Celtic course, in which people spend the morning taking lessons in employment and healthy living and spend the afternoon playing football.

Sarah said: “The fact I’m alive today is the impact they had. It saved my life. I don’t doubt for one second that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that.

“People accepted me for who I was. Having that helps build up confidence and realise you are a worthwhile person even if I’d made a lot of bad choices in life.

"I didn’t wake up one day and decide to be a heroin addict. Stuff happens.“

After completing the course, Sarah worked as a coach with Celtic and last year got a job as Street Soccer’s Aberdeen co-ordinator.

She has also been representing the Celtic FC Foundation at charity dinners.

Sarah said: “I spoke at the Celtic charity sporting dinner and that was the first time that I felt proud of myself.

“My mum said she could see my dad in me.

“It’s all about living life on life’s terms. Nothing can happen in life that will make me go back to the dark days.”