A baby is born with a serious heart condition every two hours in the UK and despite congenital heart disease being one of the biggest killers of infants, only around half of congenital heart defects are picked up during routine prenatal scanning.

With your help we can provide a safety net for the 1,000 babies each year that leave hospital with their heart defect undetected, increasing detection rates, improving a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life.

Zaki was born with a serious heart condition that hadn’t been picked up during pregnancy scans. Within hours of being born he became seriously poorly and was airlifted by helicopter to Leeds General Infirmary to undergo his first heart operation. Two days later he had open heart surgery and was put on life support with only a 25% chance of survival. The first months of his life were spent in hospital fighting to live but today you would never know what he went through as a tiny baby. If Zaki’s heart defect had been spotted sooner, his start to life may not have been so tough.

Tiny Tickers is a small national charity that works to promote the early detection of heart defects in babies, through raising awareness, training for sonographers and healthcare workers and providing equipment to hospitals. They also support families during the toughest times of their lives and are a lifeline for so many. Zaki and his family are forever grateful to Tiny Tickers for the work they do. We also have another player Harry who had an extremely difficult start with a heart problem but continues to go strength to strength like Zaki and we're so proud of how they've battled everything and continue to do so with great parents who also had a terrifying time none of us parents would want to go through.

For this event we are extremely grateful to the Dads at Discoveries Rovers, the workforce at Davis Wagon Services and Franklin College for their donation of pitch and help to the charity. We also would like to thank Iain Biglin and Internet Mariners for their continued support to help us raise money for charities.