This year I am raising money in memory of Alfie Cowley, a young man who I had the pleasure of coaching football to. This is his story which was written by his mum. “Alfie was diagnosed in March 2015 with a brain tumor after a few months of stabbing pains in his head that gradually got worse. He went through 6 operations to remove tumours which caused it to spread to his spine. The very first operation was 16 hours long and he had to be kept in intensive care for 2 weeks straight afterwards. When he woke up he had list the ability to swallow, walk and talk so had to relearn how to do these simple things which was frustrating. We went to Okalahoma in America, which was a daunting experience, for three months to undergo proton beam therapy which shrunk some of the brain tumours but a few months after coming back home they had grown again and spread. He then went through three months of full on radiotherapy at Southampton hospital which made him very ill where he was unable to complete the full course. The dreadful news then came back that the tumours were still growing and spreading and one had grown around the brain stem which is an inoperable place. We celebrated his last birthday (9th) and a month later he passed away in my arms on 24th June 2017”