"Cure Leukaemia’s funding of the UK Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) is a game-changer and increases the access for blood cancer patients to potentially transformative new therapies."
Sir John Bell
19th April 2017
West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster is getting 'shirty' with his Premier League opponents to raise funds for Cure Leukaemia. The Baggies star has been a supporter of Cure Leukaemia ever since he took part in their London 2 Paris ride in 2015 and he is determined to raise as many funds as possible towards the £1million Centre Appeal this year.
The England International has been collecting shirts from the Premier League stars he has been battling every week for West Brom and intends to auction them all to raise vital funds. Highly sought after match worn shirts from players such as Petr Cech, Jack Wilshere, Kyle Walker and Thibaut Courtois will be available in the coming weeks with the shirts of Riyad Mahrez and Romelu Lukaku currently available on ebay HERE
Jermain Defoe’s signed Sunderland shirt was the first shirt to be auctioned raising £420 and Foster decided he would like half of the funds to go to Bradley Lowery’s Fight after Defoe has formed such a great relationship with the 5-year-old who is battling neuroblastoma.
The remaining shirts will be posted on ebay in the coming days and weeks with 100% of the winning bid going to Cure Leukaemia's appeal to expand the Centre for Clinical Haematology at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2017.
Two shirts are live currently, one is the match worn Riyad Mahrez shirt from Leicester City’s championship winning season and the other Romelu Lukaku’s shirt from Everton’s recent 3-0 Premier League win over West Brom, a match in which the Belgian striker scored. These shirts can be bid on HERE
Every week between now and the end of the season will see two more shirts made available with all the details of when and where available, see below!
| Players Shirt | Club | Signed | eBay start date | eBay end date | Link |
| Harry Kane | Tottenham | SOLD | SOLD | SOLD | |
| Jermain Defoe | Sunderland | Yes | SOLD | SOLD | SOLD |
| David de Gea | Manchester United | Yes | Thursday 30th March | Sunday 24th September | Bid Here |
| Romelu Lukaku | Everton | SOLD | SOLD | SOLD | |
| Riyad Mahrez | Leicester City | SOLD | SOLD | SOLD | |
| Kyle Walker | Tottenham | SOLD | SOLD | SOLD | |
| Heurelho Gomes | Watford | SOLD | SOLD | SOLD | |
| Petr Cech | Arsenal | Yes | Thursday 20th April | Sunday 30th April | SOLD |
| Jack Wilshere | Bournemouth | Yes | Thursday 20th April | Sunday 30th April | SOLD |
| Fraser Forster | Southampton | Thursday 27th April | Sunday 7th May | SOLD | |
| Claudio Bravo | Man City | Thursday 27th April | Sunday 7th May | SOLD | |
| Thibaut Courtois | Chelsea | Tuesday 16th May | Sunday 21st May | BID | |
| Danny Wellbeck | Arsenal | Thursday 11th May | Sunday 21st May | BID | |
| Marcus Rashford | Manchester United | Thursday 11th May | Sunday 21st May | BID | |
| Riyad Mahrez | Leicester City | Yes | Thursday 11th May | Sunday 21st May | BID |
One shirt, however, is being set aside for a different fundraising process...
Manchester United's Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea kindly signed and donated his match worn shirt to Ben back in December 2016 and this shirt will be available to any person that donates £10 or more on Ben's JustGiving page HERE.
Each person who donates £10 or more to this page will have the chance of their name being drawn out of the hat by Ben in Blood Cancer Awareness month later this year. Ben is taking part in the inaugural Velo Birmingham cycle race on September 24th (fixtures permitting). Ben also hopes to ride the first few stages of the Tour de France one day ahead of the professionals with Geoff Thomas in his Three Tours Challenge team before West Brom's 2017-18 pre-season kicks off.
Ben said: "I really hope these shirts can raise significant funds for Cure Leukaemia. We sometimes forget, as footballers, how much fans value shirts and especially those worn by their favourite players so this is a way I can really help this year."
"I want to thank all of the players who have been so generous in donating their shirts and I really hope the public respond and get their bids in because it is all for a tremendous charity in Cure Leukaemia."
"I will continue to collect the shirts after every match West Brom play so I'm sure we could start having some banter with the fans on social media to ask which player's shirt I should go and ask for after the game!"