A very special football match was held on Saturday evening to raise funds for a Burnham-On-Sea family who are recovering from a huge fire that destroyed their home over the summer.
Rosie Clements, her husband Paul, and their three children, Lily-Rose, Shae and Ruby, lost their home, pet dog and pet bearded dragon in the fire on July 27th.
They had no contents insurance and lost everything when the blaze quickly spread through the property in Highbridge Road, as we reported here.
So Saturday evening’s football game was organised by family friend Sam Collard to show the community’s support for the Clements and raised over £700.
“We are all close friends with Rosie’s son Shae, and we wanted to give him some good memories at this tough time,” said Sam.
“Shae captained one team and I captained the other, and both squads were made up of Shae’s closest friends.”
The match was played at King Alfred School’s astro turf pitch in front of a crowd of supporters who enthusiastically cheered on both sides, and it was Shae’s team that came out on top 2-1 after a tight game.
Rosie told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Shae and Sam put in so much effort to organise this football match and it was wonderful to see Shae smiling again. The community support for us has been amazing from across Burnham and Highbridge.”
“We’ve had such emotional and financial support from so many incredible people who don’t even know us before the fire. Everyone has rallied around and it’s been so touching. We are hugely grateful and I honestly don’t know what we would have done without it.”
“We lost absolutely everything in the fire and were left with only what we were wearing on the day.”
“In addition to losing our property and pets, so many special memories were lost too – my photos were on a computer that I’d backed up, but the back-up storage was destroyed. While the house was insured, we had no contents insurance – it’s been heart-breaking.”
The family is currently living in a rented property in Burnham while they await planning permission to demolish their fire-ravaged home and then submit plans for it to re-built, which Rosie says could take 15 months or longer.
Shae’s winning football team comprised of Sam Everett; Cam Derrick, Joe Storar, Alex Phillips, Xavier Johnson; Henry Green, Charlie Weir, Matt Vale; George Heale, Shae Clements (C), Harrison Givens. SUBS: Josh Hector, Luke Mifsud Bonnici, Shaun Wood, Matt Perrin.
And Sam’s team comprised of Dan Curry; Aaron Gilbert-Muir, Matt Fry, Lawrence White, Tony Taylor; Harry Nicholls, Jai Nevison, Scott Beard, Joseph Collman; Joseph Wall, Sam Collard (C) SUBS: Joshua Peach, Mitchell Kingston, Birkan Gunduz, Lewis Crosby.
