English Schools' Football Association

The English Schools’ Football Association, as part of its commitment to community work, is supporting the charity ‘Be Child Cancer Aware’ for season 2013-14. This relatively new charity has two aims; to inform adults of the early symptoms for cancer recognition in children and secondly, to support youngsters who are undergoing treatments for cancer.

Our target is to get as many of the teams playing in our competitions this year as we possibly can to organise a small fundraising event in their school and donate the monies raised to ‘Be Child Cancer Aware’. If each player raised just £5 it would raise nearly half a million pounds! A dream, I know, but just imagine how that would help.

The first of the charity’s aims is to make adults aware of the early symptoms of cancer, which hopefully means that children who show early signs can be recognised and treated sooner therefore raising considerably their chances of successful treatment. The second aim, supporting children undergoing treatment, is absolutely magical. This is enabled by the ‘Beads of Courage’ programme whereby children collect beads to show which treatments that they have undertaken such as, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, blood transfusions and varying operations and procedures as well as recognising special milestones they have reached in their long journey in the fight to win their battles. Children who have been awarded these beads for their courage are far more able to elucidate what has been happening to them and Beads of Courage also helps others to recognise the trials that these young people have gone through.

More information can be found online at www.bechildcanceraware.org/ and details of the beads of courage programme at www.bechildcanceraware.org/beads-of-courage/

Please join us this year in our efforts to support ‘Be Child Cancer Aware’.

We have produced a simple to follow Assembly plan that you can download from out resources section and use in your morning speeches to spread the message of this great Charity. 

Many thanks, Dave Woollaston, ESFA Chairman