U18s make donation to Autistic charity

The West Ham United U18s make a donation to Quiet Waters during visit
Members of West Ham United’s U18 players and staff visited Quiet Waters in Essex on Monday afternoon to make a donation towards specialist care for Autism and other learning disabilities.

Having come from behind to defeat Liverpool at the weekend, U18 coach Mark Phillips took the squad to the West Horndon based care home to hand over a kind donation that has been collected throughout the season by the Academy players.

The money has been put towards a fundraising campaign ahead of a skydive by Quiet Waters workers Heidi Hovell and Cheryl Allen, who will use the money they raise to make improvements around the care home.

Phillips, who regularly visits Quiet Waters to see his son Jack, told whufc.com that he was extremely thankful to the players for their generous collection as it will help towards his son, and other patient’s care.

“During the season, all the Academy lads have been collecting money that they wanted to put towards a good cause,” said Phillips. “My son Jack is Autistic and he is living at Quiet Waters Care Home. After I told the boys about Heidi and Cheryl’s skydive, the boys were more than happy to put their donation towards raising money for the home.

“These boys aren’t like first team players that are earning thousands of pounds every week so this amount of money is quite a sum that they have collected between them.
“It’s a proud moment to see these young lads doing something so nice, that will help out the residents of the care home. Especially the fact that it will go towards my son’s care."
“It’s a proud moment to see these young lads doing something so nice, that will help out the residents of the care home, especially for the fact that it will go towards my son’s care.

“The work they do at Quiet Waters is fantastic and having something like a sensory room or ball pond inside the home for the residents to do to when they get stressed out will really help and it’s a pleasure to be a part of it.”

Hovell spoke about her nervousness ahead of the skydive, but also shared her personal gratitude to the young Hammers and explained how the money will help the care home going forward.

“I’m doing a skydive from 15,000 feet to raise money for the home I’m working at” explained Hovell. “We want to make a really nice sensory room, a ball pond area and also look at fun activities for the residents during the week and at weekends.

“It’s a really generous donation from the West Ham players and it will really help us to make the home even nicer for the people that live here.

“Mark visits Jack all the time and the Phillips family are really supportive of what we’re trying to do to help Jack out.

“We all would like to thank Mark and the boys for coming down to visit us. It’s nice to know that Mark cares enough about us and Jack’s welfare that he can get his work involved to make the donation.

West Ham’s 18 year old defender Reece Burke, who handed over the donation to Hovell, added that the collection, which totalled around £700, is the least that the players can do to repay the faith shown in them by Phillips.

“With Mark being the U18 manager at West Ham, he puts so much hard work and effort into training and matches to help us progress as footballers,” said Burke. “When we go to places like Quiet Waters and see how much their services mean to him and also to his son Jack, it’s the least we can do to help out.

“We were told during the visit that the money is going to be put towards a new sensory room and little improvements here and there so it’s a good cause to be helping out with.”

For more information about Quiet Waters Care Home, please visit: http://www.voyagecare.com/carehome/item/id/124