Manchester United Legends Dinner & Charity Auction
You’re putting on a big Manchester United charity event at Hotel Football in Manchester. Tell me about the background to this and can you share what will be happening on the night?
I’m raising money for the NHS Salford Royal Hospital, because I had a really bad car accident last year and I had quite bad injuries including some life changing ones. When I worked out how much I have had spent on me, it was probably around 150K. I’m really in debt to them and so I have organized the Manchester United Legends Dinner and Charity Auction.
There will be a Q&A with a few well known players – I’ve got three football players from the Class of 92, Sammy Mcllroy who’s the last Busby babe and who played with George Best, who is an absolute gentleman and who is someone I know really well, along with Keith Gillespie and Ben Thornley who played with Beckham and Gary Neville.
There is also a three course dinner. Rowetta from the Happy Mondays has also agreed to do the event, which I’m really grateful for, and Ian Etto, who’s a good friend of mine, who recently supported Noel Gallagher.
How do you even start planning an event like this?
I work for the Manchester United Foundation which raises money for underprivileged children in Manchester, so I do know some former players. That’s really helped because going through their agents you just can’t get in touch with the players. So, obviously, knowing former players who know all players, that really helps! And Manchester United have been amazing to me. They’ve given me loads of nice prizes, including a first team shirt signed by all the players and by the manager from the Foundation. So I’m lucky there, but it is stressful though!
It’s an event for 250 people and it’s already stressing me out! There are so many promoters in Manchester that put on events for thousands of people, and mine is a tiny event for 250 people and I’m already really like…. Aaaargh, it’s crazy!
Have you got like a goal amount you’re looking to raise?
I’d like to raise £10,000 pounds. I’ve got some amazing prizes for the live auction – Ricky Hatton gloves, which he’s personally given me, I’ve got a beautiful signed frame from him from one of his first fights in 2005 at the Manchester Evening News Arena. I’ve got Anthony Corolla gloves, I’ve got RHS Salford prizes, United box seats, and I’ve got a City shirt as well.
I know the event is called a Man United Legends event, but City have given me a full signed men’s shirt which I’m going to get framed and illuminated. You know what these things are like, it’s very difficult to get something signed with all the team on, if you write to any of the foundations for City or Manchester you’ll just get an item with one signature on it, not all of them because, as you can imagine, it’s really difficult to get everyone together. And the manager also won’t sign the same thing as the players, it’s just usually not done, but the United shirt has been signed by the manager and it comes with a certificate of authenticity from Richard Arnold, the chief executive. So I’m very, very lucky.
Why specifically are you raising money for Salford Royal Hospital?
I had a really bad car accident in April 2022, in Manchester in Tameside, and I came out with very bad injuries. I had three major operations and I was in the major trauma unit at Salford Royal for two months. It took four surgeons to put me back together. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of these but I had a big metal cage, like an external frame, to hold my bone in place. And I’ve got a plate in my hip now for the rest of my life. So I’m very lucky.
I’ve invited all of the surgeons, the doctors and the nurses who worked on me. I’ve given them free tickets to the event to come and celebrate how amazing they are. We owe them. I would have had to come out of hospital and sell my house if I was anywhere else. The nurses on the ward when I was there did twelve hour shifts, seven till seven, six days a week. I don’t do seven till seven, I do nine to five and that’s draining, and I’m not caring for people who are sick and shouting at them all the time! So we owe so much to them.
Salford Royal have just built a new helipad over, I think it was about three, four months ago, that’s cost millions of pounds, but if anyone now has a very serious car accident in the northwest, or any sort of bad trauma, they’ll be flown over to Salford Royal. I’ve asked the money specifically to go to that department, the Orthopedic department. So, yeah, hopefully I’ll raise a lot of money.
What are the dates that your event is on and how can we get tickets?
It’s Friday the 15th September, and it’s at Gary Neville’s Hotel Football. It’s a beautiful stadium suite overlooking Old Trafford, literally directly opposite. Tickets are on Eventbrite and they’re £60, but for that you get a three course dinner, all the Q and A’s, all the auctions and loads of nice entertainment. If you go to Eventbrite, just type in Manchester United Legends and you’ll find a red banner with a yellow red devil. And my name as the organizer is Amy Parkinson.
If anyone is looking to attend it’s quite an easy place to get to. It’s almost central Manchester with great transport links. Do you know if there will be any options for parking?
The public transport access links are amazing. I’m also hiring a car park opposite Hotel Football for the event, so there’s plenty of parking at Old Trafford all for free. It isn’t always free parking, but for my charity event I’ve got to have free parking!
The Manchester United Legends Dinner & Charity Auction is on Friday 15th September. Tickets are available here:
