Goals, goodwill and giving: Windsor & Eton's charity day raises £3,000 for Cancer Research

Photo credit: Zane Holmes Photography

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The money is still rolling in from Windsor & Eton FC’s ‘Team Santa vs Team Elf’ charity match in support of Cancer Research a couple of weeks ago.

The event at Stag Meadow has so far raised more than £3,000 towards its target of £4,000 and every penny will go towards life-saving research and treatments – giving hope to those affected by cancer in this country.

Two of those have very close links with the football club. Women’s first team manager Cathy Corr has been diagnosed with cancer, while youth team chairman Paul Mitchell’s wife Tracy died from cancer earlier this year.

Click here to donate to the fundraiser.

The club put on a special charity match between Santa’s team and an Elves team, with mixed teams from the Royalists’ men’s, women’s and vets’ teams taking to the field, alongside club supporters and volunteers.

Team Santa, in red shirts, were managed by Cathy, Tracy Cooper and Jacqui Hanson, with first team players Ethan Darcy and Nick Thumwood lining up alongside the chairman Mark Cooper.

Team Elf, in green shirts, were managed by Nicola Harding, Steve Romney and Kayleigh Richardson-Taylor. The team featured first team manager Rob Webb.

Despite being diagnosed with cancer, Cathy had yet to lose a competitive game all season ahead of the charity event.

The programme also featured a touching tribute to the late Tracy Mitchell. The much-loved wife of youth team chairman Paul wasn’t directly involved with the football club, but she was a constant source of support to Paul behind the scenes.

“We’ve had cancer affect quite a lot of our club,” said club chairman Mark Cooper.

“Paul Mitchell, the youth team chairman, his wife died about a month ago at the age of 57.

“We’ve got the women’s team manager who suffers from cancer. So, this goes quite deep into the club.

“We held a Cancer Research Day with a fun day. We had Santa’s team versus the Elves. We had some of the men’s first team players, women’s first team players, youth team coaches, volunteers and sponsors playing and we raised £3,000 for Cancer Research. It was such a wonderful day.

“The first team managers played, we had four or five first team players, women’s team players and some from the Vets team. It was a real mix, but we want to make it an annual thing for obvious reasons.

“We had over 200 people in attendance. We were also lucky with the weather, and it worked out brilliantly well.”

All proceeds raised on the day, including the entry fee, went to Cancer Research.