NEWCASTLE BUILDING SOCIETY ‘JOINS’ THE VIKINGS!

shirt-9In just three years, the Newcastle Building Society and its customers have raised an incredible £1.8 million for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation through its charity linked accounts.

Now they are helping the cancer charity in a very different way by becoming the latest supporters of Widnes Vikings’ ‘Tackling Cancer…#ImOnIt’ campaign.

For the second year, the Vikings, currently riding high in rugby league’s First Utility Superleague, are raising money and awareness of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation by featuring the charity’s logo on special edition shirts, which will be worn at the Magic Weekend at St James’ Park.

As well as donating money to the Foundation for every shirt sold, the Vikings are rewarding the first 3,000 people to make a £10 donation to the charity through the club with the donors’ name printed into the fabric of their 2016 Magic Weekend shirt.

The shirts will be available for sale and worn by the Vikings as they take on Salford Red Devils at St James’ Park in May.

Lending their support to the campaign, the Newcastle Building Society is signing up 28 times, so all of their branches across the North East and Cumbria have a place on the shirt.

The Newcastle will be alongside thousands of individual supporters of the charity and famous football names including Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker, Ian Wright and Peter Beardsley, as well as rugby league legends Jonathan Davies and Kevin Sinfield.

shirt-10Steve Urwin, Managing Director, Sales and Marketing at NBS, said: “We have a great partnership with the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and the success of it has gone far beyond our initial hopes. We have even become the single biggest donor the Foundation has ever had, which is great.

“As a local mutual organisation, it is important to us to support the communities in which we operate and supporting a charity such as the Foundation enables us to do just that. We’re delighted to be able to extend this support by signing up to the #ImOnIt campaign in this way and our branches are delighted to be part of the initiative too.”

Just days remain to secure a place on the Widnes Vikings’ Magic Weekend shirt as the opportunity ends on 29 February.

Vikings’ Marketing Director, Brian O’Connor, says: “We hoped this campaign would be popular with Vikings’ fans and supporters of the charity alike and we haven’t been disappointed.

“Everyone who makes a donation not only gets their name on the shirt, they also get a certificate to say thanks and we’ve had a lot of people signing up for friends and family as a present or to remember loved ones.

v-1“Some of the messages we’ve received have been very touching and a strong reminder about why supporting the Foundation’s work to find new treatments for cancer is so important to all of us.

“We’ve had Vikings’ fans from as far away as Canada sharing pictures of themselves with their #ImOnIt certificates on social media and there are an awful lot of Newcastle United fans keen to have their names worn on a black and white shirt at St James’ too.

“We’re very proud to be supporting the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation again this year and grateful to the Newcastle Building Society for helping us with this campaign.”

The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation funds projects, including the clinical trials of new drugs, that directly benefit patients from across the North East and Cumbria and which contribute significantly to international research into cancer.

To donate to the ‘Tackling Cancer #ImOnIt’ campaign and secure your place on the Vikings Special Edition Magic Weekend shirt please visit widnesvikings.co.uk.