{"id":594377,"date":"2021-06-20T09:02:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T13:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=594377"},"modified":"2021-06-20T09:06:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T13:06:01","slug":"nottingham-forest-garry-birtles-charity-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/06\/20\/nottingham-forest-garry-birtles-charity-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Legends Unite to Raise Money for East Midlands Charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several Nottingham Forest<\/a> legends are to come together on June 27 for a charity match to raise money for Treetops Hospice.<\/p>\n

Football Legends Unite for Samantha Birtles Trophy<\/h2>\n

Past Players Come Together to Raise Money for East Midlands Charity<\/h3>\n

A number of former Nottingham Forest players are to compete in a charity match to raise money for Treetops Hospice, who are providing care for Garry Birtles’ wife, Samantha, who has terminal pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

The match will see more than 50 former players and celebrities go head to head for the Samantha Birtles Trophy at Basford United’s ground on June 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreetops is local to us and it supports Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire so we wanted to do something to help a local charity out,” said Gary.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamantha\u2019s 80-year old mother started fundraising initially with a walking event, raising \u00a32,000. Then a friend of ours – dressed as a hot dog! – walked around Castle Donnington and raised another \u00a33,000.<\/p>\n

“In these times, it\u2019s very difficult for charities to raise money. Treetops need approximately \u00a38,000 per day per carer and are looking to raise over \u00a34 million to have a facility where people can be looked after overnight.<\/p>\n

“Everybody who\u2019s come together, and everyone involved in the committee, have been fantastic and what we\u2019ve managed to achieve so far is phenomenal. I can\u2019t thank them enough.<\/p>\n

“The list of players that has been put together is staggering and they\u2019re from all generations.”<\/p>\n

Garry Birtles’ Superstars – featuring Des Walker, Chris Cohen, Tony Woodcock, Andy Reid, Darren Fletcher and Michael Dawson – will be managed by Martin O’Neill and Nigel Clough.<\/p>\n

Kevin Keegan’s Treetops Legends, on the other hand, will be managed by Kevin Keegan and Kevin Nolan. Their squad includes Paul Konchesky, Anton Ferdinand, Michael Johnson and Clinton Morrison.<\/p>\n

Discussing the charity fundraiser, Woodcock said: “All of these people agreed to being involved straight away and we\u2019re pulling it together to get a Nottingham movement going.<\/p>\n

“A lot of clubs and organisations, including Nottingham Forest, are helping us back the event and it\u2019ll be seen by thousands, if not millions, of people across social media thanks to these organisations taking part.<\/p>\n

“The whole of Nottingham has come together for this and it\u2019s for such a worthy cause. The trigger to start this was Garry\u2019s wife, Samantha, and then when we started looking into Treetops and met the people there \u2013 they do a fantastic job and are helping the Nottingham public.<\/p>\n

“Until you\u2019re in the situation of Samantha, which is incredibly sad, you don\u2019t realise how much help the staff can give you.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s been a long haul for Garry over the last couple of years but we\u2019re able to make a positive difference and I\u2019d like the Nottingham public to all get behind this with a small donation which can go a long way.”<\/p>\n

The charity match is sold out, however, supporters can purchase virtual tickets from Basford United FC<\/a>. The virtual ticket includes a physical souvenir programme. Donations start at \u00a315.<\/p>\n

Supporters can also bid on rare football and sporting memorabilia and experiences here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or by visiting\u00a0johnpye.co.uk<\/span><\/a> and scrolling down the homepage to see the auction.\u00a0Bidding closes at 12pm on Wednesday, June 30, 2021<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Nottingham Forest FC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several Nottingham Forest legends are to come together on June 27 for a charity match to raise money for Treetops Hospice. Football Legends Unite for Samantha Birtles Trophy Past Players Come Together to Raise Money for East Midlands Charity A number of former Nottingham Forest players are to compete in a charity match to raise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3040,"featured_media":594378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33,4475],"tags":[8695,8165,8696,3552,5138,1124,8694,8698,8697],"class_list":["post-594377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-championship","category-nottingham-forest","tag-andy-reid","tag-chris-cohen","tag-garry-birtles","tag-kevin-keegan","tag-michael-dawson","tag-nigel-clough","tag-paul-konchesky","tag-tony-woodcock","tag-viv-anderson"],"modified_by":"Matt Lee","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}