Long-serving matchday staff member helps raise funds

A long-serving member of the club’s matchday staff helped raise funds which were split between the Motor Neurone Disease Association and the fundraising appeal for pitch covers.

Paul Clarke, who is affectionately known as ‘Tank’ by many people who know him in the town, has worked in a matchday security role for around 40 years. Having kept in touch with many former players he got to know, he asked Liam Cooper for a signed Leeds United shirt.

Jane Bingham, who works as a people development manager for Next Distribution in Wakefield, explains how the item of memorabilia was used: “Liam Cooper donated the shirt to Paul for me to fundraise with at Next.

“Due to being based near Leeds, we knew there would be a lot of interest. I wanted to fundraise to help those with Motor Neurone Disease as my friend’s young daughter has it. Paul wanted to fundraise for the pitch covers at CFC, so we split it 50/50.

“We raised £545 for the shirt from the raffle, I have rounded the money up to £600 and then Next donated another £200. That made a total of £800, giving £400 to each cause.”

Chesterfield chief executive John Croot said: “It’s great that the shirt raised so much money for ourselves and to help those with Motor Neurone Disease, which is a terrible illness.
 
“I would like to thank Paul, Jane and her colleagues at Next for their generosity.”

Jane Bingham is pictured presenting the shirt to the winner of the raffle, Steven Smithyman, who is an operational development manager at Next Warehouses