Keepie-uppies for SSAFA!

14 September 2020

Imogen Papworth-Heidel, from Hauxton, Cambridgeshire, has exceeded her target of £1,300 by keeping her football up in the air as many times as she can.

She is managing about 2,000 each day but has also asked for keepy-uppy donations to help her reach her target. Players from her local football club, Cambridge United, have already taken on the challenge.

Imogen, who trains with the club's youth development academy, said she was inspired to raise money after seeing Capt Tom Moore, 99, doing laps of his garden to raise millions for the NHS.

But as well raising money for NHS charities, Imogen decided to widen the appeal to cover nine charities, which support what she describes as "Covid heroes".

Her parents, Karl and Sarah, work for the NHS, and now Imogen has raised over £9,000 for multiple charities, SSAFA being one of them, after increasing her target to £7,150.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates approximately 22% of all working-age people are employed in key worker occupations in the UK, "equating to 7.1 million adults across the UK".

"My original target was 200 keepy-uppies a day and it was going to take me 97 years to do... but now I'm doing 2,000 a day," Imogen said.

Her personal best is 63 in a row without dropping the ball, but she adds them all together to reach her daily target.

On behalf of SSAFA we would like to say a massive and heartful thank you to Imogen and the amazing fundraising challenge she has taken on over the past few months. It is wonderful to see a supporter find creative ways to raise funds for those in need.