DSU’s football clubs are teaming up to promote awareness of SADS – which kills 600 young people every year.
De Montfort Students’ Union (DSU)’s football clubs are teaming up to promote awareness of SADS – which kills 600 young people every year.
Men’s and Women’s Football have come together once again for their annual charity Goals tournament, which raises awareness of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) and money for the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT) in memory of the 14-year-old who collapsed suddenly while running in 2012.
The event takes place this Saturday 28 January between 12pm and 5pm at the Goals Football Centre in Leicester.
Hannah Curwen, Chair of Women’s Football, said: “Goals is our charity 5-a-side football tournament to raise money for JHMT.
“The event is important for so many reasons; firstly is it a great way to engage students with a local charity and raise not only money; but also awareness for the cause and for SADS, an illness that can affect young athletes like many of those who attend Goals.
“It is also a way for teams within the university to come together for something other than a night out and engage with each other.”
Teams made up from members of DSU’s 36 sports clubs and 99 societies traditionally enter the tournament, which also sees a celebrity exhibition team.
Last year's all stars team featured celebrities including England’s Rugby World Cup-winning captain and Leicester Tigers legend Martin Johnson, Leicestershire cricketer Paul Nixon and boxer Rendall Munroe among many other local famous faces.?
The line-up is now full for this year’s event, but both clubs are encouraging as many spectators as possible to come along to the event. There will also be a raffle to raise additional funds for JHMT.
Elliott Watts, Chair of Men’s Football, said: “JHMT is a charity very close to both clubs.
“Goals is just a fun day out, not taken too seriously (most of the time) and a great chance to do something a bit different with other students and friends.
“This will be my second year taking part. I played last year, but our team got knocked out in the groups – which still annoys me as we had a good team!”
But Elliott explained that the day is bigger than the results on the pitch.
“Awareness,” he said. “That’s the most important thing. The money we raise is obviously crucial, but if we can pass information about SADS on to students it makes a huge difference. It may even save someone’s life.
“We see how something as tragic as Joe’s story could happen to anyone who’s young and involved in sport and really relate to it in many ways.
“Joe would be a similar age to a lot of us now and probably just starting out his uni journey.
“I’d also like to thank Steve Humphries [Joe’s Dad] from JHMT. His support, energy and enthusiasm for the event has made this all possible.”
Goals is just one event in DSU’s unique partnership with JHMT, which will see a defibrillator fitted to the Campus Centre to make it the first such life-saving equipment accessible to staff, students and the public alike on the De Montfort University (DMU) campus.
DSU is also encouraging DMU students to attend the trust’s SADS Awareness Conference 2017, held at the King Power Stadium on Thursday 2 March. Find out more here.
You can find out more about JHMT on their website here.
Some of the stars of Goals 2016 pose with Steve Humphries (centre holding tshirt) and current President of DSU Dan Winney.
RELATED NEWS