A young fundraiser who has dedicated the past 6 years to raising money for the Children’s Hospital, Oxford, will be presenting a cheque for £1,700 on Monday 17 November.
Andrew Baker – aged 20 – from Didcot, raised the money by organising a charity football tournament at Oxford City Football Club earlier this year.
23 teams from across Oxfordshire took part in the six-a-side “Play2Give” event on one of the few sunny days in July. Teams from businesses including Miele in Abingdon and Siemens in Oxford, local fire-fighters, and even a team from Oxford United battled it out on the pitch, with the “All Stars”, a team of footballing friends, coming out as overall winners.
Andrew, who had life saving surgery to remove a brain tumour when he was 12 – has pledged to raise £20,000 for the Children’s Hospital and after 6 years of hard work is now nearing his target.
He said: “I know how important great care is in hospital and am thrilled to have raised this money for what I believe is an incredibly important cause. This is the second time we have done this event and it has got bigger and better – we can’t wait to do it all again next year.”
Andrew was helped to organise the tournament by Maxine Ford from Clifton Hampden. She said: “It’s a lot of hard work organising an event like this, but this year everything really came together. It’s great to have established this as an annual event that can now go from strength to strength”.
Penny Hambridge, Children’s Development Officer at the hospital added, “Andrew’s commitment to the hospital over the years has been wonderful. We hear a lot of negative things about the youth of today, but he is a shining example of how generous and public spirited young people can be.”
The event also raised money for Abingdon Amateur Boxing Club.
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Notes to editors:
The media are welcome to come to the children’s hospital at 11am on Monday 17 November for the cheque presentation. Please contact Sarah Vaccari, Communications Manager, Charitable Funds, ORH on 01865 743428 or 07801540287 (sarah.vaccari@orh.nhs.uk) to confirm attendance, or request further information or photographs.
The Children’s Hospital (CHOx) looks after over 65,000 children from across Oxfordshire and beyond. It provides state of the art care for newborns through to adolescents, with play areas, classrooms and beds for parents helping to make what can be a very stressful time for families that little bit easier.