Ellia’s amazing fundraising efforts boosted by Plainmoor bucket collection, with over £475 raised on the night!
Last week, supporters of Torquay United and Plymouth Argyle joined together to help support the astonishing fundraising drive by ardent Gulls fan, Ellia.
Supported by a team of family, friends and fundraisers, last Tuesday saw Ellia descend upon Plainmoor for United’s first home friendly, having recently took part in a gruelling 15-mile trek across Dartmoor to raise valuable funds for OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity.
The mammoth challenge in scorching temperatures would be a monumental acheivement for most people, but what makes our young supporter’s efforts even more remarkable is that Ellia herself was diagnosed with brain tumour twelve months ago.
Ahead of our final home friendly against Exeter City on Friday, there will be one more chance to show your support for Ellia at Plainmoor, with posters providing supporters with the opportunity to donate located around the stadium.
Despite enduring weekly trips to hospital as part of her extensive course of treatment, inspirational Ellia, supported by her dad Dan Smith and the rest of the family, is determined to help others.
Not content with having already raising thousands of pounds for the Little Princess Trust – a charity that provides wigs to children having chemotherapy – Ellia then set about raising awareness and funds for OSCAR’s, a charity who have been helping to support her during the past year.
Since being diagnosed, OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity have assisted by sending booster boxes in the post and have also funded sessions of play therapy to help Ellia understand her emotions throughout this testing period.
With OSCAR’s presence beginning to extend to the South West of England, Ellia has committed to do all she can to raise money and help other children facing a similar diagnosis, and amazingly, she has already smashed through her original fundraising target.
Ellias’ online fundraising page has already received widespread support, with her initial target of £500 exceeded some time ago, and at the time of writing stands at a whopping £3,840!
With every single pound raised directly benefitting OSCAR’s and helping them to support children with brain tumours and their families, the fundraising efforts are continuing though, with OSCAR’s also pledging to raise awareness of signs and symptoms of this terrible disease, and also fund research into better and kinder treatments.
On behalf of us all at Torquay United, we’d like to say well done Ellia, and thank you to everyone that contributed!
About OSCAR’s
OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity was set up in memory of Oscar Hughes, a 9-year-old who died of a brain tumour in 2014. His journey was heartbreaking yet inspiring. OSCAR’s aims to provide support and care to children with brain tumours, raise awareness to help diagnosis and fund research into better treatments.
Further information regarding OSCAR’s fantastic work is available at www.oscarspbtc.org
