Inaugural Aaron Winstanley Memorial Shield To Take Place

We are absolutely delighted to announce that alongside five other clubs from the local community, we will be launching a pre-season Charity competition in order to raise much needed funds for Aaron’s Battle.

The inaugural “Aaron Winstanley Memorial Shield” will see Barton Town Reserves, Barnetby United, Brigg Town Reserves CIC, Immingham Town, New Holland Villa & Ulceby FC compete for the title of shield winners, however in our eyes the only winner will be the charity. We are delighted that six local communities have the opportunity to come together and remember the life of Aaron through the power of football.

The clubs have all already made donations as part of a registration process and many local businesses and people have come onboard with some amazing gestures of good will towards what we hope will be a fantastic opportunity to bring the community together once again to remember a brave young man.

The competition will see the six sides compete in games throughout July in a group format with the winners of each group playing each other at The Easy Buy Stadium on Friday 2nd August with a 7pm Kick off followed by live entertainment in the clubhouse on the night.

The final night will also see the unavailing of a memory message board kindly donated by MD Signs for people to come and leave messages to Aaron. There will be a number of excellent raffle prizes available to win which have been kindly donated by Easy Buy. The Shield will then be presented to the winners on the night by Aaron’s wife Saraya, which has been kindly sponsored by The Money Box. Finally, a man of the match award also presented by Saraya which has been kindly sponsored by Lindsey Relay Barton.

Admission to the game on the night will be just £1 with all profits from the registration, raffle, admission and night going 100% to the Charity. Match programmes will also be available for £1 and the programme has been sponsored by The Old Mill.

After the game there will be some live music from the fabulous “Gray” who will be singing and entertaining you throughout the evening.

Hot food and refreshments are available on the evening and we hope as many people will join us in remembering a fine young man who left us far too early.

We will keep you up to date throughout July with how the group games are going and who you can expect to see competing on the 2nd August.

Aaron’s Battle was set up in 2016 when at the age of 28 Aaron Peter Winstanley was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer called Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma.
He was finally diagnosed correctly after initially feeling unwell. By the time they had correctly diagnosed Aaron the terrible disease had already spread all over his body. After initial treatment Aaron had beaten the cancer, but just two months later it returned, and Aaron’s battle would start all over again.

Aaron’s Battle was set up when learning that this rare and aggressive form of cancer couldn’t be treated in the U.K and Aaron would need to go to Germany for treatment.
However, that would come at a cost, a cost which seemingly looked impossible. Aaron’s Battle saw many charity events held over a two-year period. This brought Barton and the local communities together to raise much needed funds to allow Aaron to receive treatment.

As the charity and the events grew, the targets were being met along the way, giving Aaron hope he would beat this awful illness. However sadly in the early hours of Friday 28th September 2018 the illness finally beat Aaron and he passed away peacefully in his sleep at home after a long and brave battle.

In February of 2019, with Aaron’s wife Saraya at the helm of the Charity, Aaron’s Battle would look to move forward and continue to raise money to raise awareness and support against this awful illness.

Although this will be the inaugural Aaron Winstanley Memorial shield, there is history of a similar competition that ran.

In 2011 there was a pre-season competition which was played between local Town and Village teams, this competition became a charity competition and supported different charities over a three-year period. Starting in 2011 it was first called “The Euronics Shield” and was won by New Holland Villa FC. In 2012 it was renamed “The Pickering’s Invitational Shield’ with the winners that year being FC Bartonola.

History would suggest the last time a competition such as this was played was in 2013. it was again renamed, this time it was played as a Memorial Shield and was named “The Adam Turner Memorial Shield.” This was in light of his tragic death. The winners that year were Baysgarth Old Boys.

We hope that you’ll be sure to join us on the 2nd August and come and pay tribute to an incredibly brave man who is deeply missed. If anyone is interested or would like to donate then please get in touch with the club’s page or email the organiser liamgraham88@live.co.uk.