League kicks off in the cup for Dan!

After starting a season of support until next May's final in September's preliminary round of the EVO-STIK League's showpiece cup competition, the 11 clubs hosting ties on Tuesday will be promoting the charity's work with adverts and flyers in their matchday programmes.

Founded by the family and friends of the late Shaw Lane defender, pictured, to raise funds in his name to stop others dying of undetected heart conditions following his tragic death at the age of 24 after collapsing on the pitch during an Integro League Cup clash at Brighouse Town, more than £40,000 towards a target of 50K has already been raised for The Daniel Wilkinson Foundation.

More than a £1,000 alone was added to the total at the inaugural Daniel Wilkinson Memorial Trophy match on the eve of the new season in August between last season's EVO-STIK League South champions and Brighouse Town at the latter's Dual Seal Stadium.

A former Hull City youth team star, who also turned out for North Ferriby United, Scarborough Athletic, Harrogate Town, Goole Town and Rushall Olympic, Dan passed away in September 2016 after collapsing on the pitch just under an hour into his side's cup clash and despite the best efforts of medics from both clubs and the emergency services to treat him using Town's own stadium defibrillator and administering CPR.

The defender was later found to have the same disease that caused former Bolton star Fabrice Muamba to retire from football in 2012 after collapsing during an FA Cup tie at Spurs. That incident prompted the Football Association to team up with the British Heart Foundation to subsidise the cost of defibrillators for more than 900 clubs at Steps 1 to 5 following lobbying from a number of competitions including the EVO-STIK League.

The FA announced in August that the initiative is being relaunched following its previous success with more than half the clubs in the EVO-STIK League alone taking advantage of the subsidy to purchase the life-saving equipment.

Find out more about The Daniel Wilkinson Foundation via the charity's social media channels and website: Twitter, @dannywilks5; Facebook, thedanielwilkinsonfoundation; Instagram, dwfoundation5; website, thedanielwilkinsonfoundation.org and via email at: contact@ thedanielwilkinsonfoundation.org. To donate, visit: http://mydonate.bt.com/charities/thedanielwilkinsonfoundation.

Images courtesy of Shaw Lane & Brighouse Town

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