LORD and Lady Carnarvon are to hold an eight-a-side 24hr Football Fundraiser at the weekend to raise money for The Stroke Association, inspired by the illness of one of their staff.

Real life has mimicked fiction at the Carnarvon’s seat, Highclere Castle, which is the real life Downton Abbey from ITV1’s hit costume drama.

In October 2010 at the age of 35, Highclere’s head chef Paul Brooke Taylor Paul lost the sight in his left eye. After three months of tests and hospital visits revealed nothing, Lord and Lady Carnarvon sent Paul to their own eye specialist – just as Lord and Lady Grantham did for Downton Abbey’s cook Mrs Patmore in series one.

After an MRI scan and a visit to a neurologist it was discovered that Paul had suffered a stroke.

Since discovering that young people too have strokes quite regularly, Paul and the Carnarvons decided that they needed to raise awareness of the condition.

Joined by Hollyoaks’ Marcus Patrick, Paul, Lord Carnarvon and other staff at Highclere will take part in a 24hour charity football fundraiser on Saturday, February 4 from 6pm in Abingdon’s Soll Leisure.

Paul said: “We often watch Downton Abbey and recognise bits of Highclere Castle’s real life playing out in front of us – it was quite strange when Mrs Patmore and I were both going through exactly the same thing at the same time!”

Lady Carnarvon added: “Highclere Castle and the people in it are one big family and Paul is very much part of it.

“Watching him going through this frightening ordeal was awful to watch – of course we were happy to do anything we could to support him.”

There are around 3,510 people living in the county with a long term disability caused by a stroke. Across the UK, around a quarter of strokes happen to those aged under 65, with around 1000 happening to those under 30.

To support the men, visit justgiving.com/PaulBrook-Taylor.