Traveller men raise over £14K for children in hospital
Even Levi W, Rj Draper and pals where surprised when the football-aided fundraiser they had organised for the children in Great Ormond Street children’s hospital and St Georges hospital in London reached “fourteen and a half grand”.
The Romany Gypsy and Traveller men had got together to raise money for charity before, but normally raised five or six grand, says Tom Ball, whose daughter Valentina was the inspiration and motive behind this particular fund-raising bash.
Tom adds that Valentina had a serious illness and is now recovering - thanks to the grace of God and the work of the doctors and nurses at St George’s hospital - but at first it was touch and go.
“A lot of people knew about my daughter,” Tom Ball tells the Travellers Times.
“We had messages from all over the country, people praying all over the world for my daughter, and to cut a long story short, we raised fourteen and a half grand, which we split evenly to Great Ormond Street and St. George's Hospital - who saved my daughter's life.”
The fundraising started with a football match between two teams of Gypsy and Traveller men - eleven a side, with a referee, linesman, cheering supporters, and on a full size pitch; so proper Match of the Day stuff!
The football match to kick off the fundraising wasn’t that hard to arrange, adds Tom Ball. Gypsy and Traveller football teams often arrange matches together and have been doing so for a long time, he says.
The football match did its job – got everyone talking and sharing and the fundraiser just grew and grew.
“Some people put a hundred pounds, some people put a pound, and some people donated five hundred pounds,” says Tom Ball, adding that everyone put in what they could.
Once the fundraiser was closed, the organisers decided to use the money to directly help the children in the hospitals, rather than donate it to a charitable trust or direct to the hospital itself.
Instead, the organisers went out and bought toys - pick up truckloads of them. Tommy Ball explains their reasoning.
“We bought PlayStation 5’s, 15 Nintendo switches, 20 iPads and more, and we went and donated them to the children's wards,” he says, adding that this way the money went to where it was meant to go when they started the fundraiser.
“When Valentina was rushed to hospital, we had no warning, we arrived with nothing with us,” says Tom Ball, adding that there are also many children in the hospitals whose parents can’t afford the toys they need to keep them occupied while they undergo treatment that could last for weeks or months.
“Some people are not as fortunate as other people,” adds Tom.
“They can't afford these things in life and some little children have to go to hospital and they've got to just sit there because their parents can't afford toys to keep them occupied, so we thought we'll donate the toys to help them.”
TT News
All photographs and video courtesy of the fundraiser organisers
Who were (big round of applause):
• Levi W
• Caleb Eastwood
• John Williams
• Joseph Jones
• Mark Creese
• Michael Dunne
• Richard Cole
• Roger Draper