I was very honoured and humbled to be awarded a testimonial game to mark my 50 years service to Hitchin Town FC. I certainly did not want to take any proceeds from the game for myself and I wanted the club to benefit from the match receipts. But I also wanted to help a charity as well. As the game is against Luton Town I felt it would be a good idea to support a heart charity as Luton captain Tom Lockyer suffered a cardiac arrest in their league game at Bournemouth. Tom thanked the players, staff, doctors and paramedics who saved his life. Because of this and the fact that I suffered a mini-stroke myself a couple of years ago I have decided to try and raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

The BHF is the largest independent funder of cardiovascular research in the UK. For over 60 years BHF has pioneered life-saving research that has helped halve the number of deaths from heart and circulatory disease in the UK. Tom Lockyer himself recognised the value of the BHF in the following quote:

"I cannot stress enough how important it is for as many people as possible to know CPR. It literally saves lives, like mine. Please check out the British Heart Foundation website for basics or get yourself on a course. You just never know when you might need it"

The proceeds of the match have already helped to fund a new community defibrillator that will be installed at Top Field before the game on the 8th March. I will be making a donation to the BHF from the match receipts and you can also donate directly to the BHF using this page.

As well as buying your tickets and donating via the collection buckets at the ground on the night this Just Giving page has been made available so those who may not be able to get to the game can make a contribution.

Every penny donated via this Just Giving page will go directly to the BHF and Just Giving do not take any processing fees.

The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can.

Thanks

Roy Izzard