CHARITY INFORMATION

Blackburn Rovers nominated the East Lancashire Hospice to receive funding from Field of Dreams last season. The grant of £1,850 was used to purchase essential equipment for patients being nursed at home by hospice staff and included 3 locomotor sliding sheets, used to move patients in their beds or chairs and a Sentry pressure pad to alert nurses or carers to a patient getting out of bed.

Lyn Stevenson, Hospice manager explained, “At the hospice everyone is special, we touch so many lives, people from all walks of life whether they come to us or we go out to them, they are all special in our eyes. It is the little things that make a big difference to our patients’ lives and your generous donation has purchased the specialised equipment for the Hospice at Home team. Having the new equipment on site allows us to respond to the patients’ individual needs quickly and efficiently without any time delay. Thank you again for this vital funding.”

In 2005, £1,750 was awarded to The Princes Trust as a result of the Football Aid game at Ewood Park. The award went towards the Trust’s “Get off the Bench” (GOTB) programme which uses the power of football to motivate young people and enable them to move on to work, education and training through a unique personal development opportunity.

Richard Marsh, Head of Development and Quality in The Prince's Trust said, “The award will enable the Trust to work with 20 unemployed young people in Blackburn through the "Get off the Bench" programme. Importantly, the young people we work with have the same dreams as those players who have contributed to this work with Football Aid."

Royston Lindley attended the last GOTB programme in November and will be working as a peer mentor on the next programme. He continued, “The Prince's Trust through GOTB has transformed my life, I was unemployed going nowhere sitting watching TV all day. Now, I have started college, joined a gym, I am a help coach with The Prince's Trust, I have a place to live and I am waiting to start a level 2 coaching award. I have a reason to get up, MAGIC!"

Over the past few years Football Aid have awarded over £78,000 to the Prince's Trust, firstly through it’s partnership with the FA Premier League and more recently, with Blackburn Rovers. The money has funded a variety of projects including Development Awards to help young people get their lives working and individual grants for young people involved in sports related projects.

In 2004, Child Action Northwest – Action Mentoring received £3,245 to develop activities through football for children and young people who are either known young offenders or at risk of offending. Ian Blackey, Project Manager is delighted over the success of the project.

“All the young people became more motivated, developed respect for each other and became more tolerant of each other.  The focus of the weekly activity - we organised 2 hour football activities every Saturday morning – helped to control their language and their tolerance for all abilities and ages clearly developed.  Some moved on into structured league clubs and were upset when Christmas Day intervened (a Saturday)!  We learned that given purpose and a physical activity, young people can benefit and become motivated, tolerant and more confident in a structured environment.”