'My skin is crawling' says teacher who supports Sheffield United but will wear Wednesday shirt for charity

Wayne Chadburn, who is an avid Sheffield United supporter, promised students he would wear the shirt if he raised £2,000 for Home from Home Hallam. Mr Chadburn, as he is affectionately known by many All Saints students, past and present, said: “My skin is crawling at the mere thought of it and I will probably have to soak in the bath afterwards.”

He said he knew the challenge “would be painful, but it is for a fantastic cause” and was disappointed he couldn’t wear “any protective clothes like a United shirt underneath”. He believes he will just about manage sporting the Owls’ blue and white strip for the day but will “draw the line at a Leeds shirt”.

Mr Chadburn has a £2,000 fundraising goal for Home from Home Hallam, a group from the Hallam Diocese supporting a refugee family in Sheffield. On the group’s webpage, it says: “Our project aims to provide practical help to one family who find themselves in Sheffield through no design of their own. Our aim is to help them as they try to establish a new life in our midst.”

Mr Chadburn said he heard about the project after an assembly by the school’s headteacher and found it “resonated” with him. He said: “It is a family with quite diverse needs, with three children, one of which was quite severely disabled."

Mr Chadburn’s fandom of Sheffield United is quite well known around the school, which is what prompted him to make the commitment to the Wednesday shirt. He said: “I thought maybe that’s a good way of raising some much needed cash.”

Both Sheffield’s professional clubs have gotten involved in the charity effort too. United have given Mr Chadburn two home tickets to raffle off, as have the Owls, who have also offered to loan him a shirt for the day, so he doesn’t have to buy one.

The fundraiser has already raised over £700, which Mr Chadburn says “shows how great Sheffield is, people across the city have got behind it”.

If you would like to get behind this great cause and put Mr Chadburn in a Wednesday shirt for the day, you can donate to his JustGiving page, here.