Charity fun day at Heron Eccles (FA Parklife)

On a lovely sunny Saturday, we were delighted to hold a fun football day at the Parklife Heron Eccles Site for children who have been impacted by the Chernobyl disaster.

Even now, over 30 years later, official warnings against eating wild foods contaminated by Chernobyl’s fallout still exist in these countries. However, the worst consequences of this tragedy are the thousands of thyroid cancers and leukemia in Ukraine and Belarus and the tens of thousands more predicted cancers of all types over the next 50 or 60 years. These, together with the vast areas of radioactively contaminated and uninhabitable land created the humanitarian crisis which afflicted Ukraine and Belarus.

It was against this backdrop that Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline was founded on the Wirral in 1992 and we were delighted to support the charity by organising a fun day for the children. The site was ideal, as we were surrounded by football pitches and the new clubhouse under construction along with the three 3g pitches to be installed.

The site team at Heron Eccles, Emma Tyler, Gareth Jones and Project Manager Wayne Blair were busy in the morning erecting marques and inflatable football targets. Our supply chain were keen to support and they provided sports equipment, football dart board and the fantastic food. This included Steve from Webber NW Ltd, James from Stock Brickwork, Paul from Nationwide Fencing and Kevin from Summit Scaffold.

The children arrived at 10am for a busy day of football matches, obstacles courses, archery, badminton and an incredible football target. The children played a match with the local team Heron JFC, many children showing skills the England team would be proud of. Heron JFC donated a pair of football boots to each child, as well as kit bags full of goodies and the trophies for the day. They all enjoyed a fabulous lunch with birthday cake and great day was had by all.