Event at Mossley Hill Athletics Club on Sunday, September 24, will feature TV soap stars and is being held in memory of John Ware who loved his trips to the French religious shrine. Tony McDonough reports

A charity football match is being held in Liverpool to raise money for a charity that organises trips to Lourdes for sick and disabled people.

On Sunday, September 24, Mossley Hill Athletics Club in Mossley Hill Road will be the venue for the match being held in aid of the Across charity which arranges ‘Jumbulance’ pilgrimages to the religious shrine in South West France.

Airline Jet2holidays is supporting the event and is donating return flight tickets for two people to any destination in its European network as a raffle prize.

The raffle, which is being co-ordinated by Tony Wailey at the Richmond Tavern in Allerton, will also offer a number of other prizes.

The event is being organised by Steve Ware in memory of his brother John Ware who had Down’s Syndrome and died a few years ago.

John made a number of pilgrimages to Lourdes, a place he came to love and, according to Steve, he was “always smiling, popular with fellow pilgrims and was an altar server when attending mass”.

The match, which kicks off at 2pm, will features a number of TV soap stars who will be playing a local team organised by Dave Worth.

Lourdes has been a place of pilgrimages for millions of people from across the world since illiterate peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who later became Saint Bernadette, reported that Our Lady had appeared to her 18 times. It is claimed the waters at the shrine contain miraculous healing properties.

Gates for the event will open at 12.30pm and the cost is £5 for adults, £2 for under-16s or £10 for a family.

For further information contact Tony Murphy on 07881 656974 or Mossley Hill Athletics Club on 0151 724 4377.