Hunmanby Charity Tournament To Raise Funds For Teenage Cancer Ward

A community football tournament in Hunmanby will raise vital money for the teenage cancer ward at Leeds St James's Hospital in memory of Dylan Kennedy.

A community football tournament will raise vital funds for teenage cancer care in Hunmanby this weekend.

The Dylan Kennedy Memorial Trophy will take place on Saturday, at Hunmanby Playing Fields. All proceeds from the event will support Teenage Cancer Ward J94 at Leeds St James's Hospital.

The event is being held in memory of Dylan Kennedy. His brother, Keegan Kennedy, is the secretary and treasurer of the newly established grassroots football club, Hunmanby FC.

Keegan Kennedy spoke to us about the inspiration behind the charity day:

"Yeah, so it's our second year of running the tournament. So, I'm the secretary and treasurer of Hunmanby, the football club. So, the charity day in itself, so, last year we ran one for the ward and it was in connection with Hunprenco the factory up in Hunmanby which raised just over £1,100 for the ward. So, what it is it's about saying thank you to the staff and then making the lives of the patients a bit easier on that ward because when my brother was in hospital with cancer, that ward for the 10 months he was on there you know on and off, was an absolute God send. You could not fault them at all. Everything they need as a patient, they had. And it also had things to lighten the mood. I mean, they had like a breakout room with Sky Sports. They had a pool table. They had a karaoke machine. And that made the lives of the patients so much easier and so much more palatable when all day you're going through quite heavy treatment and quite a rough time in your life. So that's sort of what the day is, it's to say thank you to the staff and to raise money to make the lives of the patients a bit easier with whatever the ward thinks that you know would make their lives a little easier."

The four-team tournament will feature Hunmanby FC's First Team and Reserves alongside other local clubs including Hessle Sporting Club Thirds.

Keegan detailed the schedule for the football and the family entertainment on offer:

"Yes, so there's four games throughout the day so first game is Partington Stanley vs the Hunmanby Reserve team. At 1:15, there is Hessel Sporting club 3rds vs the Hunmanby first team. At 1:30, there's the third so it's four team tournament. At 1:30 there's a third place play-off and at quarter to three there's the final. Alongside that, you've got a good few local vendors coming so there's the Meadow Bakehouse doing a cake and bakery stall, there is Trust The Crust pizza stand doing a pizza stall. We've got a local burger van in, we've got Jolly Jumpers the bouncy castle hire coming in and we've also got Fusion in Scarborough the owner is coming down and just doing a bit of live music throughout the day to keep the energy up and you know, keep it going."

Organisers are hoping to bring people together for a great day out while raising money for a cause that means a great deal to many families.

Keegan outlined the raffle prizes and the importance of community support:

"Throughout that, we've also got a raffle going on for a bit of Scarborough Athletic merchandise, so we've been very grateful Valley Bar Seadogs and Scarborough Athletic have donated some signed merch. So we've got a full team signed match ball. We've got a signed shirt from all the team from last season's home shirt, and we've also got this season's away shirt fully signed by the team as well. So, the raffle is £2 a ticket or three for a fiver. 

"But apart from that, it's mainly just come down and support the local community because it's a very good thing to have, you know, especially, it's grassroots football at the end of the day as well. It's raising money for charity and it's also that sort of supporting local business because yes, there's the stalls and stuff as well, but you've also got like the HPA who have kindly helped us out massively setting the full day up and sort of things like that."

You can donate by clicking on the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/dylan-kennedy-memorial-tournament