Partner Article

Charity praises long-running football competition

Leading local sight loss charity Beacon has praised the organisers of the long-running JW Hunt Cup ahead of the competition’s Molineux final tonight.

The West Midlands football tournament, which has been running for 89 years, generates significant funds for the sight-loss charity, with around £300,000 already donated.

Arwyn Jones, Beacon chief executive, said: “Every year since 1926, teams from across the Birmingham, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire football associations compete for this prestigious trophy, and every year local blind and visually impaired people have benefitted.

“We are so grateful for the ongoing support of the JW Hunt Cup, founded in memory of local businessman John William Hunt, and thank the organisers for another splendid season of competition.

“The matches themselves provide a terrific community focus as well as helping us to raise awareness of the Beacon charity and the work we do to support more than 3,000 local people.”

“Their recent donations have helped us establish the mobile low vision advice service “beacon bus” that we launched in March”.

This year’s finalist are holders Tividale and Stone Old Alleynians. The match kicks off at 7.30pm at The Molineux.

The JW Hunt Cup is open to teams across the West Midlands, with all proceeds generated through entry fees and programme sales donated to the Beacon Centre.

An impressive £8,000 was generated for the Wolverhampton-based charity last year.

Arwyn Jones added: “It’s a real honour for us to be very closely linked with a tournament which is so highly-regarded in the local area.

“We never cease to be amazed by how much money is generated from the competition to help people who are visually impaired in the Black Country.

“With more than 167,000 people in the West Midlands having sight problems all donations are vitally important and very much welcomed to ensure we continue to offer the best facilities and support possible.

“Our congratulations go to both Tividale and Stone Old Alleynians for reaching what promises to be an excellent final and I’d encourage people to come along and watch some great football in a fantastic local stadium.”

To find out more visit www.beaconvision.org

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Caroline Garbett .