Celebrity charity football match in Northamptonshire raises hundreds for charities

A Northamptonshire football club has raised just under £2,000 for three different charities during a ‘Football Fun Day’ with MP Chris Heaton-Harris acting as referee.

Welford Victoria football club (WVFC) hosted the event on Saturday, July 3 which saw a team of celebrities, ex semi-professionals and football club representatives go head to head in a charity match refereed by Daventry MP and Conservative chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris.

The MP, who recently completed his fortieth season as a referee, said: “It was an absolute privilege to referee for Welford Victoria FC’s charity fun-day and a huge congratulations to all involved for raising such an impressive amount of money.

“After the hectic last few months as Chief Whip, putting my boots on and heading out onto the pitch is the perfect way to take your mind off the madness of Westminster. I look forward to attending many more local events in the future and well done to everyone again.”

Star-studded players from Celeb FC included Gogglebox’s George Gilbey, radio presenter and DJ Simeon Riley, and ITV presenter Rob Lamarr.

The Football Fun Day also included bouncy castles for children, face painting, tombola, a raffle, quiz show entertainment and plenty of cake in addition to a pop-up gin bar run by Hinckley’s Bond Street Distillery.

The event raised £1,900 overall, which will be divided between three charities: PSC support (a charity which works to improve the lives of people living with primary sclerosing cholangitis), Hope Against Cancer and The Bradley Lowery Foundation, which helps children who are fundraising for medical treatment and equipment not available on the NHS.

Chairman of WVFC Barrie Dowsett said: “Sunday was the culmination of months of effort by the club’s committee – all volunteers – and a load of hard work by locals on the day who all came together to make a fantastic event for everyone

“I must also thank Chris for so kindly giving up his time to be our referee; it’s great that, despite holding an important Government role, he’s still able to support events in his constituency.”

Club secretary Simon Stevens added: “We’re incredibly grateful for the support of local businesses who sponsor us, either for kit or for specific events.

“We’re trying to be a little different here: we like to win matches, of course, but we’re far more interested in being able to do a little good – whether for charities as we did on Sunday, or by providing a friendly and welcoming environment for people to enjoy football.”

Celeb FC was founded in 2013 after a group of celebrities played a charity football match and the participants felt it was not right that - unbeknownst to attendees - some of the donations were being paid as fees to the organisers, celebrity appearance costs and more.

Celeb FC was formed with the vision to bring a “showbiz feel” to small UK fundraisers, ensuring that monetary donations do not go towards appearance fees or PR costs and that all participants play voluntarily.

Find out more about Celeb FC by visiting http://celebfc.co.uk/.

Find out more about the WVFC charity football match by visiting http://welfordvictoria.com/.