Kira Roberts: Former Sheffield Wednesday youngster raising money for desperately-needed help – Owls get on board

It’s been a very tough year for the 22-year-old, who lost around a third of her body weight as she battled her way through illness, but there may be a light at the end of the tunnel if she can raise the money to see a specialist for treatment that isn’t available on the NHS.

After a family friend bought a box at Hillsborough for the game against Lincoln City, the decision was made to make the day all about Kira, and her mum, Donna, says Wednesday ‘couldn’t do enough’ for them as they plastered her picture up around the ground on the day in an attempt to help them reach their target.

Kira, a promising young player for the Owlesses before her illness, needs £45,000 for the treatment she requires, and managed to take a chunk out of their target thanks to a charity game put on my Staveley Miners Welfare FC, but still need help if they’re going to get to the where they need to be.

As a family full of Wednesdayites, to see Kira’s name on the Hillsborough screen, on the advertising boards, on top of tables in the hospitality and on the back of the Wednesday programme will have been heart-warming – but more importantly it will have led to more money being donated to the cause.

The gastroparesis has let to her being fed through a tube as she drastically tries to put on some of the weight that she’s lost because of her illness – thankfully some progress is being made, and the exposure brought about by their afternoon at S6 won’t have done any harm at all.

And they were delighted with how the day at Hillsborough went, with Kira’s mum telling The Star, “They couldn’t do enough for us… Even the chef was amazing, he kept coming out to see us. And James Todd (Wednesday’s partnership manager) sorted us out a signed shirt that we can auction off at an event at Hallam FC in early December.

“We also ended up winning the 50/50 draw as well! It might sound a bit dodgy, but I promise you it wasn’t – we all bought tickets and put them in, and we won. It was almost £700, so that’s gone straight into the fund as well.

“Then we were chatting to one of the physios afterwards, and he gave us one of his tops to auction off. It was just a really amazing day, we cried for most of it – it was so emotional.

“It’s just a shame that Kira had to be in hospital, but we did FaceTime her, so that was quite nice. And even though they didn’t win, at least we got to cheer once!”

The Sheffield Wednesday has gotten behind plenty of their own in the past as the famous fanbase clubs together for the benefit of a fellow fan, and for anyone wishing to donate to Kira’s cause – you can find Kira’s GoFundMe page here.

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