Prison partnership to benefit all

An all-day football tournament between prisoners and staff has netted almost £1,000 for cancer patients.

The event was held between prisoners and staff at Stoke Heath Prison with more than 70 taking part. Building on the success of the day which raised £934, Stoke Heath’s Governor have now pledged to support Lingen Davies with further activities this year – as a way of giving back to the community.

Jay Stoker, an Officer at Stoke Heath organised the football tournament and said it a was a fabulous day with great competition between those involved.

“The prison always does things for charity, we did a crossfit competition recently, and supported Movember. I’ve never organised anything before but there’s lots of staff interested in football so I thought that would be a good start.

“We had about 40 prisoners and 30 staff taking part and decided to raise money for cancer patients, it impacts everyone,” he added.

Mark Greenhaf, The Governor at Stoke Heath Prison, said the prison is eager to do more work locally and many of the approx. 780 prisoners, and up to 400 staff, have a lot to offer.

“We’re very keen to get involved with the local community and developing a partnership with Lingen Davies Cancer Fund will bring tremendous benefits to our prisoners and staff, as well as allowing us to support the charity.

“Ensuring the wellbeing and welfare of all our staff and prisoners is important to us and we actively work to talk about physical and mental health. Some of our prisoners have been trained to act as Health and Wellbeing Champion’s through Shropshire Community Health Trust and now we can work with the charity to highlight cancer awareness as well.

“Most people have been affected by cancer in some way and this is a very valuable organisation and a great opportunity for us to work together and help. We have lots of ideas of things we can do to support the charity and look forward to developing our partnership this year.

“Thanks to Jay for coming up with this initiative,” he added.

Helen Knight, Head of Fundraising, said developing a partnership with Stoke Heath Prison was a tremendous opportunity for everyone involved and will incorporate much of the Lingen Davies LiveLife Awareness project.

“A large part of our work is raising awareness about cancer in the community, Stoke Heath Prison is a large community and being able to highlight the signs and symptoms of cancer to both staff and prisoners is incredibly valuable.

“We are very grateful for the initial donation of £934 raised from staff and prisoners during the football tournament and look forward to supporting their future fundraising efforts.”