Please donate to the official charity collection prior to the match against Charlton in aid of the Smile4Rich appeal.
The charity is one close to the Club's heart, and you can help support it by raising funds outside St. Mary's on Saturday afternoon.
Smile4Rich was set up in memory of 15-year old Saints fan, Richard Bowler, who died after suffering a brain haemorrhage while training with his youth football team in July 2002. Since then, the charity has raised in excess of £400,000 to fund projects at Southampton's Wessex Neurological Centre, including a dedicated Neuro Intensive Care Ambulance and a specially equipped suite which is used to assess children with severe epilepsy for life-changing surgery.
The Wessex Neurological Centre treats around 4,500 patients a year and is one of the most well-respected specialist neurological centres in the country. Following a horrific motorcycle accident in August 2007, Saints' community coach Ricky Fernandez was treated at the centre for numerous life-threatening injuries. Thanks to the skill and dedication of the team at the Wessex, Ricky has made a quite remarkable recovery and has recently returned, part-time, to his work at the club, click here for story >>>
Donations received from fans will go toward the latest Smile4Rich Appeal, which aims to raise £200,000 to equip one of the Centre's operating theatres with a new, state-of-the-art operating microscope fitted with fluorescence imaging technology. This equipment will provide surgeons with real-time images of blood-flow in the brain during neurovascular surgery, for such conditions as brain haemorrhages and aneurysms, minimising the need for repeat surgery, reducing the chance of post-operative complications, and hence speeding the recovery of patients.
Every penny will help us toward the target, and your support will be greatly appreciated.
For further details of the Smile4Rich Appeal and the Wessex Neurological Centre, please visit http://www.smile4rich.co.uk/
