Cerebral Palsy United FC is a very special football club. The club welcomes anyone who has Cerebral Palsy or an Acquired Brain Injury (CP/ABI) and wants to play football; regardless of their experience, age or gender. There are currently over 170 playing members, ranging in age from 3 to 38, across the North West of England. Through their football programmes and wider educational initiatives, they support their members to develop as people as well as players and help them to become the best they can be both on and off the pitch. They currently run 6 centres, one in each county of the North West region. This clearly costs a lot of money to support over the course of a year, but is an invaluable activity to those young people who participate in the Club.
The club’s main centre is on a Saturday at Partington Sports Village (nr Manchester) which brings players and families together from all over the North West and beyond and has become a Community Hub for people who have Cerebral Palsy or Acquired Brain Injury. Their coaches and volunteers provide training sessions and games for children, young people and adults throughout the day (from 9am through until 3pm.) The Centre also provides a breakfast club, with various family engagement activities and support throughout the day.
It is for this reason that Sue Embley of MOFS identified that the Allianz Community Sports Fund could help and she agreed with Ruth Meadows, Club Secretary of Cerebral Palsy United FC and colleague at Mason Owen & Partners, that MOFS would support an application to the fund.
Allianz is the Worldwide Insurance Partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Movements and so far, they have pledged £300,000 to the Allianz Sports Fund and have supported over 180 clubs deliver sports programmes in their communities. Allianz broker partners have the unique opportunity to nominate a sports club which is important to them for funding.
“We were absolutely delighted that our application to Allianz was successful. The club does some fantastic work with young people and adults and I knew that like most voluntary organisations, that money is tight and I thought that a grant from Allianz would be most welcome by Ruth and the team” said Sue Embley of MOFS “it is absolutely brilliant and will make a huge difference to their work.”
Keith Burn, Development Director of MOFS added to Sue’s comments. “Here at MOFS, we have a longstanding commitment as a business to invest in our community as well as the business. We have supported Merseyside Youth Association, Wirral Hospice St John’s, Everton in the Community and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to name but a few. We are only too pleased to help worth charities like Cerebral Palsy United FC where we can.”
Ruth Meadows of Mason Owen & Partners and Club Secretary of Cerebral Palsy United FC received a cheque for £3,000 from Allianz Regional Manager, Stuart Darroch, accompanied by Keith Burn and Sue Embley of MOFS. “I would like to offer a very big thank you to Allianz for their grant of £3,000 and for the nomination by MOFS. This kind donation will go towards supporting the cost of running our Club’s main hub on a Saturday at Partington Sports Village (near Manchester) and we are delighted that Allianz chose to accept our application!”
