An 11-year-old amateur footballer netted a massive £4,000 by arranging a tournament to raise money for cancer charities.
Mia Yearn, who plays for Cambridge United girls team, put pen to paper and wrote to as many youth football coaches as she could think of to inspire them to take part in the charity event.
The hard work paid off when her letter encouraged 34 teams from across the eastern region to come to Soham football ground for the day’s tournament along with Cambridge United players Harrison Dunk and Tom Elliott.
The former Weatheralls Primary school pupil decided to raise money after family friend, 15 year old Tristan Lenk, was diagnosed with non hodgkin’s lymphoma.
He has been treated and is now well but watching his family and friends go through the difficult experience inspired her to raise money to help others in similar situations.
Her mum Lisa said: “Mia heard me talking to Tristan’s mum on the phone about it last year and she said she wanted to do something to help.
“I had visions of a cake stall at the end of our drive but Mia was adamant it would be a football tournament. Both she and her brother Kai play for Cambridge United so it made sense to make it a football fund raiser.
“She wrote to clubs and I emailed coaches. The day turned into a much bigger thing than we expected. It was amazing.
“We are incredibly proud of her.”
Mia, who will start Soham Village College in September, designed posters and the programme for the day, which included bouncy castles, face painting, stalls, beat the goalie games and target shoot out practice along with the football matches.
Mia, who was in the winning team on the day, sent a massive thankyou to everybody who took part and helped make the event such a success.
The money will be split between the Soham-based Liam Fairhurst Foundation and the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
Runners up were the Soham town rangers girls team.
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