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Donations pour in for Sir Bobby Robson JustGiving page

Fundraising | 12 Aug 2009

Sir Bobby Robson’s JustGiving page has recorded more than £40,000 in donations since he died last Friday – the fastest-ever response for an in memoriam page on the site.

The 76-year-old former Ipswich and England manager (pictured), who fought cancer five times, created the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation to help fund clinical trials for prospective cancer treatments.

Poignantly, on the day he died a message he wrote days before was still displayed.

Referring to the reception he received at a football match at St James’ Park on Sunday 26 July, he wrote: “It was one of the best nights of my life and I can’t believe how many people turned up to support me and my charity.  The atmosphere was amazing and the England win, thank goodness, was well deserved!!! 

"I would personally like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who bought a ticket for the football match or indeed anyone who has made a donation to my charity. As I keep saying, 'every penny counts'."

Inspiration

Before his death the total raised through Sir Bobby’s page was just over £90,000 – with an additional £19,000 in gift aid. The average donation was £41.40 and 2,177 people had donated.

In the five days since his death 1,675 people have donated a further £40,059.45, with an additional £9,509.67 in gift aid. The average donation is now £23.92.

This takes the total raised by the charity since it was created in May 2009 to £1,644,459.75 – against an original target of £500,000, which was actually raised in just seven weeks.

Foundation spokeswoman Liz Luff said: "It's incredible. We wouldn't have expected it to be as much as that but we are very grateful.

"We have held a lot of high-profile fundraising events, but Bobby was always really pleased with the tenners and fivers he was given too, and now all those little bits have really added up.

"Bobby said one time that to have raised so much money was 'beyond his wildest dreams'.

"He was very special, he really was, and people want to feel like they were part of his team. He always said that it wasn't just his medical team or his charity team, he said everyone who donated money was part of his team."

As well as the JustGiving donations, thousands of pounds have been collected at St James' Park from fans who have signed a book of condolence. More donations could be made when a public thanksgiving service is held later this year.

Tribute pages

Since fundraiser Jane Tomlinson’s death in 2007, a page dedicated to her memory has raised more than £70,000.

A site set up in tribute to Johnny Kennedy, who featured in the documentary ‘The boy whose skin fell off’ and died in 2003, has raised almost £80,000 for DebRA, the only UK charity to provide specialist care for sufferers.

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