A 12 YEAR old boy from Oswestry has collected and donated 23 full football strip to a boys' orphanage in South India.
Harry Harrison, who has long-standing links to TNS' academy, made it his mission to collect a wide selection of football shirts for the orphanage after an appeal by a family friend.
Sheelagh and Keith Griffiths, from Oswestry, go to India twice yearly, where they support and have had a great rapport with the children in the orphanages.
In January they went to a girls' orphanage, where they took an abundance of clothes for the girls, which had been kindly donated by their granddaughters and their friends from Bellan House, Oswestry.
Sheelagh said that before heading back to India they enquired of how many boys will be at the orphanage, to try and gather clothes and football strips for the boys.
She said: "I asked my friend, Emma Harrison, if she had any spare football kits for me to take out.
"Her son Harry was on a mission, he collected me a full strip for every single boy.
"I can not begin to explain what this meant to the boys who had never had a football strip."
Harry had spent seven years at The New Saints Football Academy, but due to other sporting commitments he had to stand down.
Sheelagh continued: "Over the years he collected all his fabulous kits, and he decided to pack them all up and told his mum he wanted to donate them to children less fortunate than him, who perhaps had never owned one kit.
"The boys at the orphanage were absolutely delighted."
Harry is now playing for a new team – Vikings at Oswestry boys club – and said he will save all his new kits for Sheelagh and Keth to take in the future, as there are always new boys coming into the orphanage.
The 12 year old is in year 7 and attends Ellesmere college.
"He is certainly a boy that I take my hat of to for all the kindness and consideration he has shown, he has made such a difference to so many little boys this Christmas " Sheelagh added.
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