SIX members of PHAB Oldham, a registered charity for people over the age of 16 who are physically handicapped yet able-bodied, will be our player escorts at Sunday’s big game against Newcastle Thunder at the Vestacare Stadium (3pm kick off).
Run entirely by volunteers, the branch of PHAB Oldham based at the Crossley Street Centre, Chadderton, meets every Monday night, providing members with a wide range of activities and organising trips out.
It was while arranging a Roughyeds prize for the group’s charity Race Night on September 16 that club chairman Chris Hamilton invited PHAB members to be player escorts at Sunday’s big game.
The six who accepted are Katie Harris, James Smith, Peter Slater, Amy Connell, Kirsty Lees and Paul Michell, all adults.
There will be a curtain-raiser featuring Waterhead under-7s and Westhoughton under-7s and Oldham Foodbank will also be present, receiving donations of tinned and long-life foods.
On their previous visit to a Roughyeds home game earlier in the season, the Foodbank was thrilled and delighted by the amount of food that was donated.
We trust and hope that our fans will be similarly generous on Sunday at a time, like the long summer school holidays, when major demands are made on Foodbank.
They tell us they have plenty of tinned beans, pasta and tinned vegetables, but are desperately short of long-life milk, tinned fish, tinned fruit, rice puddings, crisps and chocolate.
