X-factor winner scores in celebrity football fundraiser for Bucks charity

X-Factor winner James Arthur and football freestyler Jeremy Lynch were on the scoresheet as a Bucks Mind XI beat a United in the Community XI 7-5 in a hugely entertaining charity fundraising game on Sunday.

Since launching a partnership with local charity Bucks Mind over 18 months ago, Chesham United has been keen to organise fundraising events and raise the profile of the charity. They finally got to do that with the specially arranged Celebrity Charity match that attracted a crowd of over 1,400 to The Meadow.

More importantly, the event raised an initial £5,500 for the charity with more to follow from the sale of shirts that were signed and left from some of the celebrities on the day, including Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth, who spent the entire afternoon promoting the charity and giving time for photographs.

Chesham United Chairman Peter Brown declared the event a huge success: “It was fantastic to see our ground packed with so many people having an enjoyable afternoon, enjoying our facilities and contributing towards a wonderful amount of money raised for Bucks Mind," he said.

“As a football club we have suffered from lost revenue, lost friendships and we have lost members of our football family. Thankfully the support from the government and grants available have enabled us to survive, but it is the well-being of our players, our supporters, our volunteers, and our community at large which is most concerning. We must let people know that it is ok to not feel ok, to feel that it is a brave thing to talk about how you are feeling and that we should all be thinking of others, picking up that phone to the friend you have not seen for a long time and just asking, are you ok?

“This fundraising football match is just the beginning of our partnership with the charity, I am excited by what we can do to support such a fantastic cause and help to raise the profile of the tremendous work they carry out within our community.”