News Story Date : 27 April, 2010

Team England Footballers Charity launch new campaign

The Team England Footballers Charity launched a new campaign to raise awareness for their charity partners last Friday 23rd April. The campaign entitled, ‘Together We Are Stronger’, timed to launch on St George’s Day will be used across the country in the media and on advertising billboards in the run up to this year’s World Cup.

Steven Gerrard said of the campaign: “We came up with the idea of us standing alongside our charity partners to give them visibility and a voice at a time when the country is getting into World Cup gear and looking towards the team. People talk about footballers being stars but it is the likes of Elaine and the other WellChild nurses who are the real stars in life. I also met Luke who is a great guy. He’s has had problems in life but to his credit he is turning things around and he’s taking part in FA coaching qualifications that we are funding as part of our Outreach Programme.”

Creating Excellence has worked with the Charity to develop and deliver its Outreach Programme. Identified by the Prince’s Trust 22 year old Luke Roynon received a bursary from the Team England Footballers Charity to complete his FA coaching qualifications. Luke said of his experience of the shoot: “There are no words to describe how I feel about meeting Steven Gerrard, he was my idol growing up. I am involved in the shoot basically because at the age of 11, I was at Crystal Palace football club and picked up a really bad knee injury and from there my career just went downhill. I started doing things that I regret doing, I got into trouble and went down the wrong path. Eventually I got involved with the Prince’s Trust to better my life and from there the England team came in to pay for me to gain my FA coaching badge and I’m continuing to get other coaching qualifications and now coach young kids which means the world to me. I was shell shocked to actually sit down and have a conversation with him, and then he gave me a couple of pairs of his boots to take home. It’s the best thing I could have asked for.”

To read the full story go to the Team England Footballers Charity website here.