Padgate Tennis and Bowling Club in Warrington presented a cheque for a magnificent £1610 to Steve Prescott Foundation secretary Alex Chicken at their annual awards night at the Grange Social club last Saturday.

The tennis club held a 12 hour tennis-a-thon in April this year with a number of other activities which ran during the course of the day including free tennis coaching, round robin competitions, a prize raffle and a BBQ. The club also auctioned a very desirable and unique piece of tennis memorabilia for the SPF. In preparation for the event, organiser Andy Hawley contacted 2014 Strictly Come Dancing star Judy Murray to request her support for the event. Judy very generously sent a tennis shirt and tennis ball both signed by her son former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray. She also sent a personal note saying, ‘Signed shirt from Andy for your Steve Prescott fundraiser. Good luck. Judy x’

The donated items were framed to create a magnificent piece of memorabilia which will now be even more valuable thanks to Andy Murray’s heroic performance at the historic Davis Cup triumph in Ghent at the weekend.

Thank you so much to Andy Hawley and all the volunteers who helped raise such a fantastic amount for the SPF and to Judy Murray for her generous donation of the signed shirt and ball.

The picture shows Padgate Tennis and Bowling club President Steve Brown, Tennis Chairman Mike Spencer and Andy Hawley with SPF Secretary Alex Chicken.