FORMER Bradford City striker Billy Clarke has raised more than £3,300 for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity by raffling off two much-loved football shirts.
Billy, who scored 25 goals in 112 appearances for City in two spells in 2014-2017, and on loan last year, raffled two shirts from the Bantams’ FA Cup 4-2 giant-killing win at Chelsea in 2015.
He raised a total of £6,620 and split the proceeds between Bradford Hospitals’ Charity (the official NHS charity partner of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and the Trussell Trust.
The winner of the shirts was announced via Billy’s social media channels as Anthony McNulty.
One of the shirts is his claret and amber City one and the other was worn by then Chelsea player, Cesc Fabregas, who gave it to him.
Billy, who still lives in Bradford district, said: “The NHS staff are the backbone of this country at the moment and this is just my small contribution to helping them.
“It’s nice to have memorabilia, and I did have plans to hang the shirts on my wall, but I have the memories in my head. I don’t need to look at them to remember what the team achieved that day.”
Nothing but praise
Billy added that he had undergone an operation at Bradford Royal Infirmary in the past and that he had nothing but praise for the all the doctors and nurses. He also visited the hospitals’ children’s wards at Christmas on three occasions, giving him the opportunity to see first-hand the amazing care patients receive.
“The online raffle was worth it to raise even the smallest amount, but it has far exceeded my expectations,” he said. “I know Bradford well and I still live in the area, so it means a lot to help in any way I can.”
Hayley Collis, Head of Fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “This is an incredibly kind gesture, as we know just how much these football shirts mean to Billy.
“Thank you to Billy for thinking of our NHS and those most in need in our city during these difficult times. Thank you also to everyone who entered the raffle. I hope the shirts will take pride of place on someone’s wall, so they too can remember the amazing achievement of the Bradford City team back in 2015.”
The money raised by Billy will go to Bradford Hospitals’ Charity’s NHS Hospital Heroes appeal, which is funding items such as comfort packs for staff, furniture and items for staff ‘wobble rooms’, appliances to help staff heat up food, as well as a number of other items and projects which enhance treatment and care.
Bradford Hospitals’ Charity is also a member of NHS Charities Together, which has benefited from the incredible fundraising of Captain Tom Moore.
You can find out more about the Bradford Hospitals’ Charity NHS Hospital Heroes appeal at https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/nhshospitalheroes.
ENDS
Note to Editors:
- Bradford Hospitals’ Charity is one of more than 250 NHS charities based around the UK. It supports the strategic direction of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by funding projects which go over and above what he NHS provides.
- Did you know that, together, all NHS charities give £1million every single day to the NHS!
- In 2017, a new £28million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which was part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals. It provides world-class facilities for the elderly, children and a brand new intensive care unit. Bradford Hospitals’ Charity provided £260,000 to enable the Trust to create family friendly environments, state-of-the-art equipment and innovative distraction toys and games for young people.
- With the support of Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, BTHFT was also able to provide more cots, including intensive care and high dependency cots, new family accommodation, a revamped counselling suite and a dedicated room for mothers to express milk for pre-term babies when the new neonatal unit opened in 2015.
For further media information, please contact Kelly Thornham, Communications Officer, at communications@bthft.nhs.uk or call 01274 382265
Twitter: @BTHFTCharity Facebook: bradfordhospitalscharity Instagram:bradfordhospitalscharity LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bradfordhospitalscharity
Note to Editors:
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for providing hospital services for the people of Bradford and communities across Yorkshire. We serve a core population of around 500,000 and provide specialist services for 1.1 million people.
Our 5,500 staff work over several sites, including Bradford Royal Infirmary, which provides the majority of inpatient services, and St Luke’s Hospital, which predominantly provides outpatient and rehabilitation services. We also manage local community hospitals at Westwood Park, Westbourne Green, and Eccleshill.
In early 2017, a new £28 million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals over a five-year period. It provides world-class facilities for elderly care, children’s services, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit with increased single-room provision and a retail concourse.
The new wing is a continuation of our work to improve patient experience after our new £2 million neonatal unit officially opened in January 2015. Our maternity services were recently shortlisted for the Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Midwifery Service of the Year Award, recognising excellence and innovation in the provision of maternity care.
In 2017, we also completed a £2m refurbishment of our Emergency Department (ED) as part of an ambitious vision to create a more efficient acute medicine service for the people of Bradford. It has been designed to provide a slicker and more efficient service, with faster senior clinical involvement at an early stage in the patient pathway.
As a teaching hospital, we are at the forefront of education and development in healthcare, and have an excellent reputation for research performance. We are one of the leading centres in conducting applied research in the country, particularly in quality and safety, elderly care and rehabilitation.
The Trust is home to the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) where researchers have led the development, validation and implementation of the award-winning Bradford Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) which helps calculate an elderly person’s risk of disability, impairment, falls and complications of chronic diseases, as well as their diminishing independence and capability. This is now being used by 98 per cent of all GPs across the country.
Our award-winning Ophthalmology department is home to numerous worldwide clinical trials taking the lead in eye care research and we are one of only three sites in the United Kingdom to be enlisted in the Perioperative Enhanced Recovery Hip Fracture Care of Patients with Dementia (PERFECTED) study, which will investigate how the NHS can introduce better standards of care to improve outcomes for people with dementia.