Lionesses from the u7, u9, u10, u11, u16 & Senior Ladies team were joined by Coaches, Volunteers, Parents & Supporters an all came together to run in one of the weekly Whitehaven Park Runs and raise money through sponsorship to buy Chemotherapy Gift Packs to give out to patients after they have received Chemotherapy and the Henderson Suite based at West Cumberland Hospital.
The Lionesses grouped together a number of months ago to raise money for this cause which is close to everyone’s hearts within the teams. Weeks of getting sponsors off family and friends to raise money to buy Gift Packs from a brilliant local company called Tropic who supply the Chemotherapy Packs and make them up and were offering to do them and make no money from them so that the Lionesses could present them to the Henderson Suite at West Cumberland Hospital. The packs cost £20 each and the Henderson Suite who said they'd be delighted to receive them as they get 40-60 referrals every month and the pack includes many things that a patient would find useful after treatment including special body wash, and creams, boiled sweets among other things and the Henderson Suite say are really worthwhile packs, even more special, every pack will have a card on saying it has come from the Whitehaven AFC Lionesses.
The Lionesses were greeted by the Whitehaven Park Organizers upon arrival with lots of smiles, and they talked the girls through the run, and how their times would be recorded with a special bar code and they'd know which place they finished. The organizers also did a chat to everyone at the run and announced the Lionesses to the other runners and what they were running for and they received lots of applause from the other runners. A few minutes before set off, Damian Seath took all the Girls and parents and coaches through a warm up and stretch so no injuries were picked up.
The organizers set everyone off and lots of enthusiastic Lionesses raced ahead of all their "Older" Coaches to try and beat them, players as young as 8 took part as well as parents, and it was amazing to see so many people of varying abilities and fitness all taking part towards one great cause. The first half of the run was all up hill and some started to take a steady approach to the run, and coaches and Senior Woman Players spread out over the course to run with the varying speeds of the Lionesses.
Above Isobella Robson, Lily Cameron & Destiny Campbell with the Chemotherapy Gift Packs!!
The Coaches & Volunteers who organised the run commented afterwards 'It was an emotional day for some as it was really humbling seeing so many of the Lionesses from different age groups all coming together to do such a selfless thing for others in our local community who are going through difficult times. The Whitehaven Amateurs Club was built on community and doing things in the community and being part of that community and it was amazing for us to be part of this event with the Lionesses carrying on that message our club stands for. We'd really like to thank all our sponsors and supporters, including runners on the day who gave donations and also to The Whitehaven Park Run, who were great in allowing us to come along, and we'd strongly recommend them to anyone, be it a little extra fitness, or starting to get fit, there are runners of all abilities there and its very welcoming and very well organised.’
Rob Campbell, Damian Seath, Adam Robson & Vivienne McKee added ‘We Couldn’t believe the total when we gathered all the money up, we honestly thought a few hundred pound would be great, but to raise £4000 is amazing. The girls get a lot of support and depend on a lot of support from the local community to do the thing they love which is football, we want the girls to also give back to the community that supports us as well, sometimes it’a more important to support others rather than yours and we feel really nice that in the coming weeks one of these packs will bring a smile to someone’s face when they going through a difficult time. We’d like to thank Jo who did the tropic packs for us, we know she doesn’t want any limelight for it and wouldn’t appear in any photos, she has a pure heart of gold and is a lovely person who is bringing so much happiness to people’
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