Mike Biggar (born 20 November 1949) is a former

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Biggar was educated at

Sedbergh School Sedbergh School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school, day school) in the town of Sedbergh in Cumbria, North West England. It comprise ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, where he was Head of School, then went up to

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

, where he read Law and won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

in rugby in 1971. He went on to play for London Scottish.

Provincial career

He played for the Anglo-Scots district.

International career

He was capped by Scotland 'B' to play against France 'B' in 1975. He appeared for

in 24 international matches between 1975 and 1980, four times as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Administrative career

He is a vice-president of

Minety Minety (/'maɪn.tiː/) is a village in north Wiltshire, England, between Malmesbury – to the west – and Swindon. It takes its name from the water mint plant found growing in ditches around the village, and has previously been known as Mynte ...

Rugby Club.

Car accident and health

In 1992, he was involved in an automobile accident in which he sustained severe head injuries and became disabled, requiring a wheelchair and unable to walk without difficulty. In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, while recovering from a debilitating kidney infection, and inspired by Captain Tom Moore, he decided to try to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities Together by walking 100 steps in a month. As of 10 August 2021, he had raised over £87,000 via

JustGiving JustGiving is a global online social platform for giving. The firm's headquarters are located in Bankside, London, England. History In 2000, Zarine Kharas and Anne-Marie Huby founded JustGiving (initially clickforaction.com), a company to ...

Family

He lives in

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...

, Wiltshire, with his wife Ali. Fellow London Scottish and Scotland player Alastair Biggar was his cousin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biggar, Mike 1949 births Living people Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players London Scottish F.C. players Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Aberdeen Scotland 'B' international rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish Exiles (rugby union) players Scottish rugby union players Scottish wheelchair users Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge People educated at Sedbergh School