A NEW target of £20,000 has been set on the fundraiser for former Barrow AFC player Lewis Hardcastle who announced his retirement last month.

The 22-year-old midfielder has been forced to hang up his football boots after being diagnosed with a genetic heart condition.

The original target set was £10,000 but that was hit very early on in the fundraiser which now currently stands at £11,224.

Set up by Bluebirds teammate Brad Barry, the right-back hoped the money could help him proceed on with his next step however he chooses to spend it.

The Bluebirds Trust donated £2,767 to the early retirement fund.

Chairman of the Trust Frazer Stewart said at the time of retirement: “We were saddened by the news that Lewis was having to retire and we wanted to help in anyway we could.

“Russ’ Raffle has been extremely popular since we started it a year ago with over 80,000 tickets sold and it was the perfect way we could show our support for Lewis. We had an unbelievable response from the fans, smashing all previous records and selling over 5,500 tickets which meant we could donate over £2,700 to Lewis.”