For those fans who are active in the social media world and are often users of Twitter and Facebook, you may have noticed a story circulating around about fans of our West Yorkshire neighbours, Huddersfield Town, attempting to raise some funds and awareness in respect of the 56 lives lost in the tragic Valley Parade fire disaster of May 1985.
The kind and honourable gesture was thought of and set-up by Huddersfield Town supporters group ‘North Stand Loyal.’ We caught up with Dominic White, a member of the North Stand Loyal, abbreviated NSL, to find out more about the generous act.
Dominic generally deals with the social media and marketing side of things that concern the supporters group and he was happy to contribute some information with regards to the gesture.
Here is what Dominic told us: "A couple of lads came up with the idea of raising some funds to produce a banner in memory of the lives lost in the 1985 Bradford fire, specifically it was NSL member Ben Greaves who came up with the idea, credit to him.
"It is of course 30 years this May since the tragedy and with this in mind, the NSL have decided to display the banner during the home game closest to the date of the 30th anniversary and this is the final home game of the season against Blackburn Rovers (Saturday 25th April 2015). The tragedy is, of course, now going to be marked and respected at all Premier League and Football League matches that weekend."
Naturally, not many Bradford City fans will know a great deal about NSL so Mr White explained a bit about their background and how that led to the coming about of this magnificent gesture.
He added: "NSL are a new supporters’ group who are actively trying to commemorate the history of Huddersfield Town at games this season through use of banners, flags and such like, and therefore the thought occurred that it was a great opportunity to give the Bradford fire the recognition that it deserves.
‘Not long after announcing our intentions, NSL had a couple of offers from fans to fund the banner themselves, so we decided to continue with the fund raising and instead of using the money on a banner, we were now in a position to donate any money raised straight to the Bradford Burns Unit."
Dominic was more than happy to inform us about how the fundraising was going and he and the rest of NSL are delighted at the way things are going on this front.
He said: "We didn’t expect such a huge amount of money to come in and the total now stands at close to £1,900 - £1,000 of which was raised within the first 48 hours of fundraising. It’s been a fantastic response from the fans of Huddersfield Town, Bradford City, Lincoln City and various others.
"We’re now in a position where can have the banners produced and funded by the generous fans, meaning that any money raised will go directly to charity. We’ll continue to keep promoting the campaign over the next few months and hopefully keep the total going up.
"Something to note is that despite us setting up and leading the campaign, this is all down to the generosity of football fans far and wide; and certainly not just the NSL.’"
Fellow North Stand Loyal member Graham Ellis added finally: "This is Bradford City’s day and we want to show our solidarity and work with the City fans to make sure our response is appropriate.
"No one should go to a football match and not come home."
To donate go to www.justgiving.com/Huddersfield-Town-Supporters
You can visit the North Stand Loyal website at www.northstandloyal.co.uk
Many thanks must go to the North Stand Loyal supporters group for their kind gesture and also for agreeing to give us some details with regards to their campaign.