Following Everton FC’s Christmas charity visits this week, Wayne took the opportunity to personally present cheques to two of the charities he is supporting through the Wayne Rooney Foundation.
Wayne presented cheques for £250,000 each to Claire House Children’s Hospice and Alder Hey Children’s Charity as well as making the same donation to the NSPCC offices in Liverpool. Each donation will create lasting legacy projects at each charity.
The donations have come from monies raised by Wayne’s foundation, which to date has raised almost £2.2 million. This includes the money raised from his Old Trafford testimonial match between Everton and Manchester United.
Said Wayne: “It’s always a privilege to meet the children and families who are being really brave and positive during their illnesses. It’s a particularly difficult time of year but I hope we were able to bring some Christmas cheer, as all the charity staff do throughout December.
“I’d like to single out and pay tribute to all the staff members at the three charities I’ve visited this week who do such brilliant work, week in and week out, not just at Christmas. I think it’s important for me to be able to contribute through the Wayne Rooney Foundation and continue to help children who need it most.
“Since my testimonial, my foundation and our charity partners have been working together to ensure that the funds we raise will be put to good use and have a lasting effect. Those projects are now underway and it’s a pleasure to be handing over the cheques today.”
John Armstrong, director of philanthropy, from Alder Hey Children’s Charity said: “We are incredibly grateful to Wayne and his Foundation for this generous donation. The money raised will go towards enhancing our ward based treatment rooms, providing much needed distraction and creating a more fun and friendly environment. This will make a real difference to thousands of patients and families who visit Alder Hey every year.”
Alex Modder, children’s services manager at the NSPCC Hargreaves Centre in Liverpool said: “We are incredibly grateful for Wayne’s very generous donation. The funds donated today will play a vital role in making sure we’re able to reach even more vulnerable children when they need us the most – whether it’s through Childline, our Helpline, or one of our therapeutic services such as ‘Protect & Respect’ here in Liverpool.”
“Wayne is our inaugural ‘ambassador for childhood’ and to date has helped us reach an incredible 1.6 million children through our schools’ service which is teaching a generation of young people to keep themselves safe from abuse. In Merseyside in the last academic year we reached 15,056 children and visited 60 primary schools with our Speak Out Stay Safe assemblies.”
David Pastor, chief executive of Claire House Children’s Hospice, said: “For every seriously ill child that Claire House currently cares for, there’s one more that we can’t reach. Thanks to the support of the Wayne Rooney Foundation and their donation, we are developing a specialist team of nurses to provide the very best care and support to these children and their families, wherever and whenever they need it.”
Rob Cotton, chairman of the Wayne Rooney Foundation, said: “We look forward to working with all the Foundation charity partners in 2018 and continuing to monitor the progress of how monies raised by Wayne – and those who supported his testimonial – makes a difference. The foundation would also like to thank the sponsors that helped make this all happen.”
The Wayne Rooney Foundation aims to improve and inspire the lives of under-privileged children. BT is the founding and principal partner of the foundation and his testimonial was supported by BT MyDonate, a not-for-profit, online fundraising service for UK charities.
Facebook enabled Wayne and United to stream the testimonial match live whilst Key 103 radio promoted the whole event. Think Money Group and Hublot supported the testimonial whilst Manchester United Football Club hosted over 60,000 fans of both clubs at Old Trafford on the night. Together all these partners helped make today’s financial contributions possible.
Further Wayne Rooney Foundation presentations will take place in the new year with other charity partners.
Ends
Note to editors: Pictures of the visits are available.
Media contact: Mark Whittle for Triple S Communications on 07908 617 226
