Watch Your Back MND representatives Sean Woods, his wife Siobhan, and Lisa Taylor were at Oriel Park on Tuesday afternoon to receive the proceeds from the club’s recent fundraiser in aid of Motor Neurone Disease research.
Head coach Stephen O’Donnell and players Brian Gartland, Robbie Benson, John Mountney, Nathan Shepperd and Paul Doyle handed over a cheque of €9,526 to Watch Your Back MND, an organisation set up by Dundalk-man Roy Taylor, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2018.
The proceeds came from the recent jersey auction which was held around the SSE Airtricity League game with Shelbourne at Oriel Park on April 22nd.
Dundalk wore a special, one-off shirt on the night after official club sponsors BetRegal kindly agreed to donate their front of jersey space to Watch Your Back MND.
The funds will be directed to Research Motor Neurone, a charitable organisation based at Trinity College that supports research and creates awareness about a debilitating condition that currently has no cure.
“This initiative was announced 10 days before the game with Shelbourne,” said Dundalk FC chief operating officer Martin Connolly, “so to raise just short of €10k in that timeframe is nothing short of incredible.
“It highlights the generosity and caring nature of our supporters and the most satisfying thing is that it has raised the spirits of some special people within our community who are fighting against this disease, notably Roy Taylor and Sean Woods.
“Everyone at Dundalk FC would like to wish the Taylor and Woods families – and everyone involved with Watch Your Back MND – the very best going forward and it’s great to know that we have added a couple of new Dundalk supporters to our fanbase!
“We would like to thank The Unit for their support with the promotional campaign and, in particular, we would like to show our gratitude to our main sponsors BetRegal for donating their front of shirt sponsorship to Watch Your Back MND.
“It was an incredibly generous initiative, which they fully instigated and endorsed, and we look forward to working closely with them on more projects which will benefit our wider community.”
“We were absolutely thrilled at the response to this campaign, which raised almost €10k for an amazing cause,” said BetRegal head of marketing and affiliates Aly Lalani.
“The BetRegal management team would like to directly thank the Dundalk FC fans for so generously contributing, via the jersey auction and the collection buckets on the night.
“It reinforces the reason we were so open to the idea of sponsoring Dundalk FC in the first place; because it’s a club based in the community, and we are humbled to have been a part of it. Kudos to everyone involved.”
For more information on Watch Your Back MND, visit the website here.
