Arsenal star Declan Rice has shown his class by donating a significant amount of money to a fundraiser for a young West Ham academy player who is fighting cancer.
The midfielder left the Hammers last summer to join the Gunners in a blockbuster deal worth £100million to make him the joint-most expensive English player in history.
Rice has since thrived at the Emirates Stadium to put himself on course to justify his immense price tag. However, the 25-year-old has not forgotten his roots and still appears to be keeping tabs on the ongoings on the other side of London.
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Rice appears to have donated £5,000 to a fundraiser for a 14-year-old West Ham goalkeeper, Oscar Fairs, who is fighting against a rare brain cancer, Ependymoma. He was diagnosed with the stage 3 cancerous brain tumour just over a year ago and has since undergone seven rounds of surgery on the condition.
After four months of chemotherapy, the disease stopped growing and he was moved onto radiotherapy. The cancer then became resistant to the radiotherapy and ultimately the treatment failed after 30 cycles.
The family are now looking to raise £100,000 so that Oscar can travel to Lille, France, and undergo a treatment called MEMMAT. It is not provided in the UK, with only 22 cities having the facilities to complete the treatment.
Rice’s contribution, along with donations from 2,500 other people, has taken the total funds raised up to £77,000 at the time of writing.
West Ham chairman David Sullivan has also generously donated to the cause, putting £10,000 towards the goal. The GoFundMe is starting to pick up pace and Rice’s donation has been shared online, leading football fans up and down the country to donate to the cause.
Gavin Dawes, who set up the fundraiser, wrote: “We have a meeting on Friday with our France Oncologist. The first meeting is to discuss the treatment plan as Oscar has now been accepted by the French specialist. The cost of the whole MEMMAT treatment, plus partially the living cost to support our son in France is £100,000!
“If our children are our future, please please help us save our precious warrior and we, Your Forever Fairs Family, will continuously hold you forever in our hearts.”
