Wigan Athletic Supporters Club are proud to have Latics2Amsterdam as the Official Charity Partner for the 2016/17 season.
WASC in the past has raised thousands of pounds for local charities, raised their awareness and brought their plights to the fans of Wigan Athletic, who in turn have been fantastic in helping them out.
Now in its 3rd year, L2A was initially comprised of two long-time Latics fans, Peter Mulqueeney and John Heeley (both of which help in the running the Supporters Club), cycling from Leyton Orient’s ground to the Amsterdam Arena in June 2015, as part of the Football to Amsterdam bike ride in aid of Prostate Cancer UK, the official charity of the EFL.
They raised nearly £6,000 between them and spurred on by their success, they were joined by 11 other Latics supporters in 2016, with the group raising £20,000, earning them an orange jersey as the top team fundraisers at the start of the event.
In 2017, the target is for 50 Wigan supporters on the Football to Amsterdam ride, each with the aim of raising £1,000 at least. The plan is also to start the ride at the DW Stadium, making the trip across to Barnsley to meet up with supporters from other clubs, before cycling to Hull to catch the ferry to Holland and completing the journey to the home of Ajax FC.
Peter, on behalf of L2A, said: “We are really happy the Supporters Club have chosen us for their Charity and hope this will help to spread the message even further and encourage people to take part next summer and raise even more money for Prostate Cancer UK and in so doing help to save lives.”
“We know it’s an ambitious target (the 50 riders), but no one thought we would achieve what we did in 2015 and 2016, so why not? The Wigan Athletic story is one of dreams coming true after all, so that has to be our motivation.”
James Beeby of Prostate Cancer said, “Ignoring prostate cancer will not beat it, and the money raised by the club’s fantastic fans will fund ground-breaking research to help fight the disease. That will help us provide dedicated support and information to men and their families affected by this disease.
“We are proud to be Official Charity Partner of the EFL, and Wigan Athletic and clubs from across the football family have consistently shown a brilliant demonstration of what we call Men United: people joining one team to fight a common opposition – prostate cancer.
“One man every hour dies from prostate cancer; it’s the most common cancer in men, but we want to make prostate cancer a disease that the next generation of men do not fear.”
To learn even more please come along to the Supporters Club before games at the DW Stadium or visit Latics2Amsterdam
This is the first time both the Official Supporters Club and Wigan Athletic have got behind the same Charity in the same season, and we hope all Latics fans will take part if they can and if not get involved in some way.
