Gary Lineker announces brilliant new job as MOTD host becomes charity patron

Former Tottenham and England striker Gary Lineker has announced he’s become a Patron of the charity Cure Leukaemia.

The charity was established in 2003 by Professor Charlie Craddock CBE and patients Graham Silk and Michael Woolley to allow patients with blood cancer in the West Midlands to access treatments that were revolutionary at the time but have since been able to expand to a national level.

Cure Leukaemia now offers potential life-saving treatment to patients across the UK, and also help fund the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP), a network that includes 15 hospital centres in the UK that helps patients receive life-saving treatment that isn’t available through standard care with a catchment area of over 20 million patients.

In a video posted to social media by Cure Leukaemia, ex-Spurs striker Lineker highlighted the personal importance of the disease to him and his family and explained his role, saying: “Hi everyone at the Salesforce World Tour in London, sorry I can’t be with you today but thank you for choosing Cure Leukaemia as your partner charity at such an amazing event.

“I’m incredibly proud to become a Patron of Cure Leukaemia alongside my former teammate and leukaemia survivor Geoff Thomas who is with you today and there are two reasons why. Firstly, my son contracted leukaemia when he was a tiny baby and to be perfectly honest, if there weren’t people raising money for research he wouldn’t be with us today.

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“That has really motivated me into wanting to help out too. Secondly, Cure Leukaemia are trailblazers in this fight against this horrible disease via the funding of the globally-significant Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP). They have exciting plans to fund the equivalent programme for children.

“So, does your company want to be a trailblazer like Cure Leukaemia and Salesforce, if the answer is yes, you’ll be helping to save the lives of blood cancer patients across the world today. Have a fantastic day and thank you so much.”