A FOOTBALL match has helped a primary school teacher to raise more funds for a national charity which has supported her throughout her battle with breast cancer.

Members of Dalton United Football Club and friends of Danielle Fitzsimons laced up their boots for 90 minutes of football as part of a series of challenges undertaken by the Fighting Fitz team to raise money for Cancer Research.

The 34-year-old, from Barrow, who works as a teacher at St Pius X Catholic Primary School, was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in October last year.

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After her diagnosis, which saw her complete bouts of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the mum-of-two decided to give something back to those who had helped her by raising funds for charity.

With the intention of raising £10,000 in 12 months, Miss Fitzsimons, along with her friends and family, are already nearing the £11,000 mark after just nine months of fundraising.

Sunday's match saw another £450 raised through ticket sales, donations from the players and a half-time penalty shootout for the fans.

Dalton United ran out as 4-1 winners on the day but Miss Fitzsimons' brother-in-law, Dan Webber, who captained the away side, was delighted to add to the growing pot amassed by the Fighting Fitz entourage.

He said: "In the last 20 minutes fitness told on our part and you could tell that the other lads train week in, week out. We were a bit sloppy after being goalless at half time.

"But of course it was all about raising funds and awareness so, regardless of the result, we have done a job at the end of the day.

"I work at Dowdales and some of the kids at school came down for the football and paid on the gate, even though they didn't have to. It's great to see everybody, young and old, willing to pitch in."

Graham Bickerstaff, 45, who is a committee member at Dalton United, helped to get the game organised and was delighted to see so many fans turn up at Railway Meadow for the big match.

He said: "It was a great day, everyone really enjoyed it and it made quite a bit of money for charity. We had a mixed team playing with all four of our managers getting stuck in.

"We managed to get the message across really well on social media and each of our players donated a minimum of £5 each.

"The majority of the lads wanted to get involved and it really helped to bring the club together. Everyone at the club from the committee to the bar staff wanted to give their time for such a great cause and we would love to host another match next year."

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The Fighting Fitz team will continue to raise as much money as they possibly can for the rest of the year and already have two children's parties pencilled in for October and December.

Mr Webber added: "If there's any little thing that we can do to raise more money we will do it. We haven't set ourselves a new target but we are so grateful for everyone's generosity so far which has taken us further than we ever thought we would get - anything extra that we manage to raise is a bonus."

If you want to donate to Miss Fitzsimons' cause, you can do so by clicking here.