School tournament trophy signed by soccer supremo

FOOTBALL manager Harry Redknapp has inscribed a personalised note on a trophy that will be competed for by pupils in memory of a child at their school who died from a brain tumour.

For the past two year’s Highdown School in Emmer Green has organised a six-a-side football tournament in memory of former student Charlie Ilsley.

Charlie died aged just 13 in December 2020, five years after being diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumour.

He was a pupil at the school for the final two years of his life and the tournament, The Team Charlie Cup, was set up in his honour.

Next year the winners of the tournament will be the recipients of the trophy, which features a message written on the back by Mr Redknapp, who managed West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur among other clubs. The trophy, which is a silver football boot mounted on top of a pyramid, features his signature in permanent marker.

Above it reads the message “Well done to the winners of this great competition”.

Charlie’s parents, Toni and Mark, travelled down to Bournemouth on Friday last week to meet Mr Redknapp.

They had been connected with Mr Redknapp through friend and former footballer Les Parodi, who played with Mr Redknapp at Seattle Sounders.

Mrs Ilsley said: “We met him at a golf club because he was at a charity event.

“He was really busy but he took the time to meet us and he was really nice. It’s nice because he didn’t just put his initials, he put a whole thing on there. It was really lovely.”

Mrs Ilsley is a trustee of Team Charlie, a charity that was established by her friend Claire Brown to raise money for children with brain tumours in her son’s memory.

She said she thought the tournament, which was started by PE teacher Sol Thomson, was a “lovely” idea.

She said: “They do the tournament every year and it’s basically to keep Charlie’s name alive at the school and to remember him. I just thought that was lovely. Highdown do a lot for Team Charlie.” While Charlie was at the school for years 7 and 8, his mother said he missed a lot of time due to his condition.

Mrs Ilsley said: “He was at the school for two years, but out of those two years, he probably only did two months.

“But I think he kind of touched them as well. They have also got a lovely bench there for him.”

Team Charlie has purchased a static home in Hoburne Cotswold Water Park, to provide holidays for the families who have a child living with a brain tumour.

For more information or to donate, go to: www.teamcharlie.org.uk