Young footballers in the Devon Junior and Minor League will be spending the season raising money for Brain Tumour Research and the work it supports at Plymouth University – with the chance to win a completely new kit for one of their teams.
The League agreed a charity partnership with Brain Tumour Research in the autumn of last year which includes exclusive rights to fundraise at each League event. The kit competition is the first major activity for this partnership.
The kit will be by Nike and will carry the Brain Tumour Research logo.
More than 5,000 young people aged between six and 18 are involved with the league, which comprises over 300 clubs. Events include Football on the Piazza in Plymouth, a mini soccer festival and fiercely contested cup finals, as well as well-attended matches throughout the football season.
Brain tumours are indiscriminate, leaving parents without children and children without parents, and are the biggest cancer killers of those under 40.
The charity funds research at four Centres of Excellence in the UK, including Plymouth University. Scientists at the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry are focussing investigations into this devastating disease, specifically on low-grade brain tumours. Their ground-breaking research is aimed at improving quality of life and survival rates for brain tumour patients, with the ultimate aim of finding a cure.
Professor Oliver Hanemann, who heads up the brain tumour research at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, said:
“We are grateful to the Devon Junior and Minor League and the Football Association in Devon for supporting our work. Every pound raised helps us to get closer to finding a solution for people who have this devastating condition.”
Chris French from the Devon Junior Minor League added:
“We are exciting by our partnership with Plymouth University and Brain Tumour Research and we are looking forward to working with both organisations and raising money for this worthwhile cause.”