We are raising money for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation on behalf of the Craig Gowans Memorial Fund. In our event for 2015 we are aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the longest 11-a-side football game!

Craig Gowans was an immensely talented young footballer, growing artist and academic, whom touched many in his life with his huge capacity for giving. He died tragically in a training ground incident on the 8th of July 2005 aged 17, two weeks into his professional contract with Falkirk Football Club. Craig remains in the hearts of those who had the privilege of knowing him, and his loss is still incredibly hard for us to bear.

The Craig Gowans Memorial Fund was established in 2007 with the aim of ensuring that Craig's memory is used as a driving force for good. July 2015 represents the tenth anniversary of Craig's passing, and to recognise this Craig's friends and family wanted to create a special event that would also take our fundraising to the next level. In July we aim to break the Guinness World Record for the longest 11-a-side football match. The current record (as of October 2014) stands at 72 hours.

This is comfortably our most ambitious challenge to date and as such have set ourselves the fundraising target of £37,000. 37 is a special number to us as this was Craig's squad number whilst at Falkirk FC. The Sick Kids Friends Foundation aims to use the funds we have raised to help fund enhancement projects to the plans for the new Sick Kids Hospital, being built at Little France (current site of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary).

As part of that programme the Sick Kids Friends Foundation have decided to fund a Sensory room in the new hospital in Craig's name, which is what our funds would help raise money for. This will be a landmark, state-of-the-art facility that will help serve the children of Scotland for several generations to come - a lasting legacy in Craig's name.

Our two eighteen man squads will have been working and training hard by the time of kick-off on 4th July. We cannot wait to see what legacy will be created in Craig's name - please do donate if you feel that this is worthy cause.

Please do contact our committee on tcggwrm37@gmail.com if you have any further queries. For more information regarding the event itself, please do visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TCGGWRM

With massive thanks,

The Craig Gowans World Record Match Committee

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