A FOOTBALL club is helping out the NHS by raising funds to help hospital workers get a vital cup of coffee.

Lydiard Youth FC, which coaches children from nine to 17, set up a Justgiving page in the hope of raising some extra cash to support frontline staff.

The initial target was set at £1,250, but that has already been passed.

Under 14s coach Simon Bradbury told the Adver: “We set up the page just to collect money for the Covid warriors, as we’re calling them at GWH.

“We’ve got a couple of workers for the NHS who are parents of some of the kids at the club so we spoke to a couple of them and asked about what we could potentially do.

"The Costa at GWH is shut so we thought about raising money to give them some of the simple things in life like a coffee.

“We’ve overachieved our target and we’re pushing on for more now.”

The idea of raising funds for the warriors was something that had been in the works before the government lockdown came in to place.

Simon added: “We wanted to do something to give a bit back and it was just during a committee meeting that we had just before the lockdown and we were considering what we could do.

"We were going to do some fundraising activities with the lads at the club but that became more difficult with the lockdown coming in to place.”

The total raised so far sits at £1,375 and even includes a donation from the North Wilts Youth Football League.

GWH has Nespresso machines, so Simon said the money will go towards buying coffee pods.