Morgan thanks Reds fans
Liverpool physio Chris Morgan has thanked Reds fans who helped him raise in excess of £20,000 for The Christie - Europe's largest cancer centre.
Chris recently completed the Manchester 10k on behalf of the hospital, and gathered backing from Kopites right around the globe online via Twitter.
The Christie was Chris's chosen charity as it was where his friend and former Liverpool player and reserve-team manager Gary Ablett was treated after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma last year.
As well as setting up an online sponsorship page, he also auctioned off a series of signed jerseys donated to him by the Reds squad who were eager to support to his cause.
In total, Chris raised around £21,000 for cancer centre and after several months of training to prepare, he finished a highly-respectable 1,623rd in the race, completing it in a time of 44 minutes and 11 seconds.
He said: "It was good. I'm not a runner by any means, so when I decided to do it just after Christmas it was taking me around 55 minutes to an hour to finish a 10k, so to do it in 44.11 made me very happy.
"I came 1,623rd out of 38,000 so I'll take that!
"The money raised is going towards The Christie, which is a cancer specialist hospital in Manchester.
"The reason I chose it was because Gary Ablett was treated there. That was my spur to do it for them and also because it's the largest one in the region one of the biggest in Europe, so it seemed like as good a cause as any.
"They said I was one of their top fundraisers for that event and because I had been plugging them and the race on Twitter, their number of followers had gone up, so they were appreciative of that.
"I've definitely got the bug for doing these sorts of things now and I'd like to do a half-marathon at some point.
"It's nice to take advantage of the position I'm in. Working for Liverpool meant I got a lot of followers on Twitter and I got shout outs from a few of the players as well, which helped raise awareness."
As well as online auctions, Chris offered fans the chance to win some signed memorabilia if they sponsored him a minimum of £5.
He admits he was left overwhelmed by the response and generosity of supporters from all around the world.
"99 per cent of the people who sponsored me have never met me, but they did it because of the Liverpool link and because they recognised it was for a really, really good cause," he said.
"My original target in terms of sponsorship was £1,000, which I got within the first day. Once I started collecting the shirts, which the lads were really good with and every player gave me something, the amount grew rapidly.
"I sent shirts to people in America, Taiwan, Germany, Luxembourg...they've gone all over the world.
"I'd like to say thanks to everyone who sponsored me - I never expected to raise what I did and I am grateful for each and every donation. To back me the way you did was incredible."