383 Premier League players sign up to Support Stan

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383 Premier League players sign up to Support Stan

Players and managers from across the Barclays Premier League including Sir Alex Ferguson, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Yaya Toure and Gareth Bale have put their names to a major campaign to raise funds for Birmingham based Cure Leukaemia, inspired by Aston Villa`s club captain, Stiliyan Petrov, who announced his retirement from football yesterday.

19 individual boards have been signed by every Premier League club over the 2012-13 season and are being be raffled off in a text-to-donate campaign that aims to raise a total of £100,000 to fund specialist nurses and drugs trials for leukaemia patients across the West Midlands. With Villa`s last home game of the season against Chelsea tomorrow (Saturday 10 May), once signed, the set of 20 boards will be complete.



The campaign was launched after Stiliyan ‘Stan` Petrov was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in March 2012

Talking about the campaign, Stiliyan said: ‘The team at the Centre for Clinical Haematology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham have been with me in my battle against leukaemia for many months. I have personal experience of how important it is to have access to specialist nurses, clinicians, pioneering drugs and treatments.

Without the help of Cure Leukaemia, all this would not be available for other patients with their own battles with this disease.

‘What we`re trying to do is draw people`s awareness to this illness and do something practical by raising funds and helping to combat the disease. I`m delighted that the cause has been supported by my team-mates and my colleagues throughout the Premier League. It`s very touching and the amount of money we raise can make a real difference.’



James McLaughlin, Chief Executive of Cure Leukaemia, said: ‘We have been working closely with Aston Villa and visiting teams from the Barclays Premier League to create this highly unique opportunity to win millions of pounds of talent through the signature of every player from all 20 teams. To date there are 383 signatures and with Chelsea players due to sign on Saturday we will surpass 400. We hope all supporters across the country will take part and together we can raise vital funds to grow our network of specialist nurses which in turn will help save more lives. ‘

To donate £5 to Cure Leukaemia`s Support Stan campaign and be in with the chance of winning every signature from all the 20 boards, text STAN19 to 70070 £5 or visit http://www.justgiving.com/supportstan

Follow @CureLeukaemia on twitter and join the conversation using the #19 #supportstan hashtags.

For more information please contact Cure Leukaemia on 0121 236 9202/ info@cureleukaemia.co.uk

Forum thread with most of the signed boards pictured: Click Here