Oxford City Football Club has chosen local children’s hospice Helen & Douglas House as their charity to support for January.

Six of their players, 3 from the women’s team and 3 from the men’s team, visited the hospice on Thursday 9th January to kick off this partnership.

Collections for the charity will be made at the Oxford City match at MGroup Stadium on Saturday 25th January at their game against the Kidderminster Harriers.

The football club are also providing tickets for some of the families the hospice cares for to attend matches during the season too.

The visit included a tour of play areas as well as meeting two children staying at the hospice Iris and Margot and the nurses looking after them.

Ross Jenkins, Manager of Oxford City Football Club said “I am delighted that we are able to support this great local charity, Helen & Douglas House.

"I visited the hospice in December and saw first hand the amazing work they do to help local families with terminally ill children. The players found the visit really interesting finding out more about what Helen & Douglas House do. We look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.”

Alison Hooker from Helen & Douglas House said “At Helen & Douglas House we help local families cope with the challenges of looking after a terminally ill baby or child who will die prematurely.

"The hospice is a very special place where families can make the most of their time together, creating happy memories during their children’s short lives.

At the toughest time of their lives, we give families time and space to be together and when a child dies, we are there to support the whole family. 90% of our funding comes from voluntary donations and this year we need to raise almost £6m to fund the cost of the care for the families we support. So we are very grateful for this support to raise funds from Oxford City Football Club.”

If you would like to donate to Helen & Douglas House go to www.hdh.org.uk.