Football-mad, Imogen raises over £14k for charity

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Football-mad, Imogen raises over £14k for charity Posted On 19 November 2020

An 11-year-old football-mad girl has done one keepie-uppie for each keyworker in the UK to raise money for charity.

Imogen Papworth-Heidel, a Cambridgeshire schoolgirl, was so inspired by Sir Captain Tom’s charity work during lockdown that she decided to set up a Just Giving page of her own. Imogen decided to do one keepie-uppie for each keyworker in the UK, not just in the NHS, but the care workers, the train drivers, police, firefighters, bus drivers, supermarket workers and many more even when her mum and dad checked and found there are a total of 7.1 million!

Undaunted, Imogen moved forward with her target and on some days reached an incredible 7,000 keepie-uppies a day. She did have some help though. Around 2,000 sports clubs, school groups and individuals ‘donated’ a further 5,976,414 through video. Some superstars got involved, including Marcus Rashford and Lioness Lucy Bronze.

During an unbroken 195-day run, Imogen herself totalled 1,123,586 keepie-uppies and her father Karl, who with wife Sarah works for the NHS, admitted keeping a tally was ‘tiring.’ He said, “The fact that we’re achieving it within six and a half months is absolutely fantastic and is testament to all the fantastic people who’ve been helping her.”

As of today, Imogen has raised £14,422 for the following charities, NHS charities Together, CWC, The Firefighter’s Charity, Education Support, SSAFA, Police Care UK, ACT, East Anglian Air Ambulance and Mind and her Just Giving page is still taking donations. Since she hit her total earlier this month, she has continued to post videos on her Twitter account under the #7millionkeepieuppiechallenge and has also met Sir Captain Tom.

https://www.justgiving.com/team/7millionKeepieUppieChallengeforCovidHeroes-Team#aboutSection