Alan Shearer OBE recently took a trip down memory lane when he met up with fund-raisers for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation from Cramlington Juniors Football Club.
Alan, a patron of Sir Bobby’s cancer charity, is a former Cramlington player and met team manager Andrew Skelton and club secretary Norman Walmsely to receive a cheque for £1,200 raised through a charity football match.
As well as receiving the cheque and finding out how the money was raised, Alan took the opportunity to catch up on Cramlington’s current form.
Alan says: “I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Cramlington. I learned a lot playing junior football and it gave me a good grounding which served me well in my career.
“We’re lucky to have such a strong network of junior football clubs in the north east and they are essential to the future of the game.
“It was a pleasure to hear how well the club is getting on and to officially receive this cheque for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. We’re grateful for their efforts and the money will be very well used helping people fighting cancer in our region.”
Thanks to fantastic ongoing support, the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has now raised over £2.5 million to help find more effective treatments for cancer.
In addition to equipping the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care in Newcastle, the charity has funded a specialist research nurse and doctor and contributed to the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s teenage cancer unit.
It recently announced that it is working with Newcastle University and has purchased an ultra-compact cyclotron which will help with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. The cyclotron costs in excess of £500,000 and is only the second of its type in the world and the first in Europe.
Andrew Skelton, who organised the Cramlington Juniors charity match along with Paul Scott and Norman Walmsley, says: “We wanted to do our bit to help Sir Bobby’s charity and decided to invite some of our old boys to come back together again to play in a game against the current coaches and managers.
“It was a great occasion and a pleasure to see so many former players and supporters turning out to support this great cause.
“One of our most successful players is Andy Sinton who went on to play for Spurs and England. Andy’s dad Ken helped many players in the early years of Cramlington Juniors and sadly died last year so this game was a tribute to him.
“Andy played in the game as did former Blackpool striker Richie Bond and ex Blackburn striker Graham Fenton. He also kindly presented us with one of his England shirts to go up in our clubhouse.
“The score finished Ex Cramlington Players 5 v 2 Current Managers so it wasn’t really as close as the coaching team would’ve liked!
“We’re very proud to have raised so much money through the game and it seemed very fitting that we could hand this cheque over to the most famous Cramlington Juniors player who is now doing such a fantastic job as a patron of Sir Bobby’s charity.”
