Shrewsbury Town legends match tops £10,000 for Harry charity
[gallery] A charity football match featuring Shrewsbury Town legends that took place in memory of an inspirational youngster has raised more than £10,000.
Harry Johnson died last July aged just seven. With the help of family friends Stuart and Claire Dunn, his family, mum Sally, dad Stephen and brother Eric organised a charity football match, which was held at Shrewsbury Sports Village, Sundorne Road, on Sunday.
More than 2,000 people attended the event and their generosity raised more than £10,000 for the Harry Johnson Trust.
Billed as the Shrewsbury Town Legends match, the game saw a team of Town old boys featuring Welsh international star Dave Edwards, Paul Edwards, Paul Evans, Mickey Brown and Dean Spink take to the pitch against Harry's Heroes made up of Harry's dad and friends and family.
Each of the 26 players had raised a minimum of £100 in sponsorship.
"We knew they had raised that before the day," said Harry's mum Sally. "So our target that we were aiming for was around £5,000. But to get more than £10,000 was beyond our expectations. Harry would have been so proud. We can't thank people enough for coming out and supporting us.
"What Claire and Stuart did in arranging it has been phenomenal. The support of everyone, the legends, the players, the members of the public and all the bucket shakers and programme sellers as well as those who turned up on the day was amazing. It was a fantastic day."
Money raised will now be presented to the children's oncology department at the Princess Royal Hospital to purchase outdoor play equipment.
"A group of parents has set up a fund to raise money for new play equipment," said Sally. "But we are going to give them a large amount to enable to equipment to be bought earlier than expected. They thought it would take a couple of years to get the money together needed to make the play area really good but instead they are going to be able to be enjoying it far earlier."
But the Johnsons won't be sitting back after their success at the weekend. Instead they will be holding a sportsman's dinner in the autumn.
"A lot of the legends donated items to us such as signed shirts and footballs so we will be holding an event later in the year to auction those off," said Sally. "We just want to raise as much money as we can for the Harry Johnson Trust."
Harry, from Vennington, near Shrewsbury, had been diagnosed with Double Hit non-Hodgkins Lymphona and was only the third child known to have this form of cancer.
