St Albans Football Club holds friendly game to fundraise for prostate cancer
St Albans City Football Club's non-league day for Prostate Cancer UK. Picture: St Albans City FC - Credit: Archant
St Albans City Football Club held a ‘non-league day’ over the weekend to raise money to help people with prostate cancer.
More than 1,500 people attended the game in Clarence Park on Saturday following a large promotional campaign to engage the community and raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.
The club has now raised well over 100k for the charity in just over three years, and a proportion of the gate receipts from this weekend’s encounter with Bath City will also be donated, as they have been for the past two years.
As well as working with the charity through a number of initiative, the club been working with local businesses to launch a city-wide initiative later this month to help raise awareness of prostate cancer.
To continue their work in the community, the club granted free admission to the weekend’s game for all under-16s, and were rewarded with a large contingent from local schools attending. St Albans City Youth also took advantage of the offer and filled the terraces with blue and yellow.
Free gifts were handed out to the younger supporters throughout the afternoon, including posters, mini footballs and fresh fruit. The ‘Saints Sticker Book’ was also on sale as part of the club’s ‘Young Saints’ scheme.
Club chairman Lee Wood said: “We felt that it was vital that we engage with the community. Prostate Cancer UK is the sponsor of the non-league day and we thought it would be fitting that we do our bit to help such a great cause.
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“Our community manager Phill Coates was diagnosed with prostate cancer and he has been working hard with our owner Lawrence Levy. The football club is one of the biggest supporters of the charity in the entire country. It fits within our demographic as well.
“Whatever we can do to help out the cause is obviously beneficial.”
Although Bath City defeated St Albans 2-0, this did not dampen the club’s spirits.
Club secretary Tom Norman said: “We had so many people working behind the scenes to ensure the day was a success. To see so many new faces coming through the gates was superb.
“A crowd of nearly 1500 wasn’t a fluke and it was really heartening to see all the efforts to promote the game and engage with the local community come to fruition.”
