I've raised £2500 to raise awareness of Gemma Lee’s fight with a competition. Competition closed But you can still donate on this page CLOSED
Organised by Grant leadbitter
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lls have soldAll 100 balls have now been taken. The Former Middlesbrough captain Grant Leadbitter is offering fans a chance to win one of his most treasured playing shirts to raise money for the wife of the club’s Under-23s coach Graeme Lee.
Gemma Lee, 40, has terminal brain cancer. Family and friends have been fundraising to raise awareness and help ensure a trial drug from Germany is available to her at a cost of £5,000 per month.
Due to the drug, Gemma’s brain tumour is now described as stable, having been told she had 12 months to live in November 2019, but the fight goes on.
Leadbitter is donating a shirt worn on one of the most memorable occasions at the club in the last 15 years to the effort to help the Lees family.
Middlesbrough fans will never forget the scenes at the Riverside on May 7, 2016, when Leadbitter walked out on to the pitch with Aitor Karanka to celebrate promotion back to the Premier League.
That moment followed a 1-1 draw with Brighton in the Championship that guaranteed automatic promotion to the top-flight.
The shirt Leadbitter wore that afternoon is the prize in a bonus ball competition being organised by the 35-year-old and his family, as they look to raise at least £2,500 for Gemma’s fight. It will be framed when possible due to Covid.
Leadbitter said: “We want to help Graeme and Gemma keep this in the spotlight while hopefully raising some money to help them too.
“It’s an awful story but one that hopefully can still have a happy ending. It’s fantastic that this trial drug has helped Gemma, Graeme and their lovely children, Grayson and Hadley.
“It has provided hope and hopefully the shirt I wore against Brighton that day can raise a lot of money to give the fight another boost.”
Leadbitter is looking to give a numbered ball to the first 100 fans to donate £25 to this JustGiving page. If that number is pulled out when all of them have been sold then the shirt will go to the lucky winner.
Graeme Lee, whose family home is in Middlesbrough, is a former colleague of Leadbitter’s. During Lee’s playing days he had spells with Sheffield Wednesday, Doncaster, Bradford, Notts County and Darlington after starting out at Hartlepool.
His former clubs have helped the fundraising effort so far, which has helped with providing the ONC201 drug for Gemma.
Graeme said: “The love and support we have received from day one has been nothing but amazing. All you good people have given Gemma so much strength to take this fight on, as a family we are so grateful. Big thanks to Grant for his special prize.”
