[BFC SITE] Matthew's A Friend-In-Me to sponsor third shirt

Matthew’s a Friend-In-Me was started back in June 2012 after we lost our little boy, Matthew, age nine, from an inoperable brain tumour. - Sheran Jacobs (Founder of Matthew's A Friend-In-Me)

"Matthew’s a Friend-In-Me was started back in June 2012 after we lost our little boy, Matthew, age nine, from an inoperable brain tumour."

"When Matthew was diagnosed, life literally changed overnight," said Sheran. "We both had to finish work. Obviously, we'd still got a mortgage, and bills to pay. So we were put in touch with a couple of charities that helped us, and that was one of the things that resonated with us when Matthew passed, so we wanted to give something back."

Sponsor of our 24/25 third kit, Rapid Response Telecoms, has kindly donated the front-of-shirt sponsorship to Matthew's A Friend-In-Me for our Sky Bet League One fixtures against Wigan Athletic and Reading.

"Myself, my husband Kevin, and my daughter Hannah decided to do a small walk just to raise a couple of hundred pounds for Sheffield Children's Hospital, where Matthew spent much of his nine months after diagnosis," continued Sheran. "We raised a couple of hundred pounds, and then we decided to do quite a few golf days and things, not wanting to get too big or anything, keeping it very personal to Matthew, and the support just spiralled. And this is when Lee came in. Lee’s organised lots of things, lots of events and everything, and more and more people in Barnsley have just come on board, and it’s just basically taken off from there."

Lee Roberts, a family friend, got involved with the charity early on and is now a trustee. He has witnessed the sharp rise in momentum in the charity's fundraising efforts.

"I got involved, I used to work with Kev, Sheran’s husband, and I worked with him at the time when Matthew passed," Lee explained. "We started with the Sheffield Half Marathon, and then like Sheran said, it just spiralled. We did a charity walk. When that finished, a lot of friends were just really cocky and arrogant and saying, ‘Yeah, I'll do that next year. So sign me up.’ The year after, it was the same, then the same again. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger, and then more people just kept getting involved. It just grew massively."

Richard Micklethwaite is also a trustee and a key part of the challenges the team has endured in order to raise funds for the vital work carried out by the team.

"From the start, they've raised over £220,000. We give a limit of £500 to each family. We've got to put a limit on it because we get that many families asking for help."

Sheran is very aware of the challenges a devastating cancer diagnosis can bring to a family, not just mentally and physically, but also financially.

"We help people pay their household bills, fuel, and parking at the hospital. When children have to come in for chemo, it can be anything up to £25 a day. When you're not working, that is a huge cost, and children on radiotherapy have to come every single day for four weeks. Children are coming from as far as Barton-on-Humber, Scunthorpe, and all over East Lincolnshire. Some of the children have siblings back at home, so they have to get back in the evening to them. So staying over in Sheffield is not an option.

"Sadly, we fund memory-making trips for children on palliative care. We want to make the most of every single day they've got left."

It is vital, then, that initiatives and opportunities such as these are presented to the charity in order to raise awareness. The kindness of Dom Wood and the team at Rapid Response means that the charity will be shown all over the world as the third kit front-of-shirt sponsor. Lee expressed his gratitude to the team at RRT.

"A massive thank you to Dom Wood at Rapid Response for making this happen. We can't thank him enough.

"It’s brilliant."

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A great gesture by Rapid Response and also the club.

However, this would have been better if not released by the club late on a Friday night. I saw it on FB around 9pm.

Could it not have been released around tea time at the latest so more folk were aware and the exposure of which the charity will want, will be increased?

Really trying not to knock anyone here, and there may be a reason behind it, but the timing could have been better for all.

 

Will we finally win a game in the pink kit?