Warriors team-up with Leopards to support Young Carers

Wigan Warriors and Leigh Leopards have teamed-up ahead of Thursday’s Betfred Super League Round 7 clash to help raise funds and awareness for Wigan and Leigh Carers Centre.

The game will see a designated Fanzone at Leigh Sports Village featuring activities like face painting, fairground rides and more, accessible through a minimum £1 donation. The zone is open from 5:30 pm, with bucket collections around the stadium area with all funds raised going directly to the Wigan and Leigh carers charity.

Bernadette Ashcroft, CEO of Wigan and Leigh Carers Centre said: “We’re representing Wigan and Leigh carers centre and we are absolutely overwhelmed with the welcome we’ve received for this massive game that will affect lots of people across the Borough.

We are a local independent charity, there are over 30,000 unpaid carers that live across Wigan and Leigh and we support around 11,000 of them. Between 550 and 600 of them are young carers. This opportunity on Thursday is about raising awareness of the needs of young carers, raising funds and also looking for people to support us as a local charity as well, maybe even as volunteers. There could be 8,000 people in the stadium on Thursday and a lot of those will be looking after someone at home and may need a little bit of support.

We’re so excited. We’ve been allocated quite a few tickets and they’ve all been snapped up by our young carers and their families. It gives them the opportunity for a great night out. We’ll be there with our t-shirts on and our collection buckets. I’m really looking forward to it, it should be a great show!”

Head Coach Matt Peet said: “It’s a fantastic charity, one that both clubs support massively. I think young for the people and volunteers attached to that charity, that we show the support for the people involved and make it a showpiece occasion.”

CEO Kris Radlinski told Leigh Leopards: “It’s an amazing charity that does an awful lot for the Borough, so to be supporting it with this particular event is very significant. I had a meeting with Derek and Neil about what charity we’d like to support, and what we could do to raise its profile with this game coming up, and the Young Carers charity stood out immediately.

Leigh have shown since coming back to Super League how good they are at putting on not just good rugby matches but great events as well, and I think this will give the charity some superb exposure and a terrific opportunity to raise some much-needed funds for them too.

Ahead of Thursday’s #BoroughBattle, Wigan and Leigh Carers were invited to the Leigh Leopard’s stadium to officially announce the fundraiser.  Some of the young carers were able visit the ground and meet Leigh’s roarsome mascot, ‘Leeto’.

A sincere thank you to both clubs and to Wigan Council for all the support you have given.

We look forward to cheering on both teams on Thursday!

If you would like to donate to our Young Carers fundraiser, please visit our Go Fund Me Page here