A Wirral charity to help people with disabilities has a new set of wheels thanks to people on the Wirral

Mar 30 2011 by Nick Hilton, Birkenhead News

A CHARITY set up to promote sporting activity for people with disabilities has a new set of wheels -- thanks to the support of the Wirral public.

The Sam Bencheikh Memorial Fund was established to continue the work of a young disabilities coach at Tranmere in the Community who died in a traffic accident in 2004.

The fund has so far raised in excess of £70,000. A minibus, bought two years ago, is specially fitted out to take disabled people to sporting activities. Now a van has been purchased to transport sporting equipment to the venues and help with sports coaching projects.

"The van is going to be such a help to the running of the charity's operations," said Susan Bencheikh, the mother of Sam and a trustee of the charity's board. "The Bencheikh family and everyone involved with the charity wants to say thank you to those people who continue to support us."

Sam Bencheikh was 18, working for Tranmere and about to begin a degree course in sports development and education at Liverpool John Moores University when he was involved in a car crash on the M53 motorway in 2004.

The fund was the idea of Tranmere in the Community officer Steve Williams, who first invited young Sam to work alongside him at Prenton Park.

Williams said: "The impact of the fund has been massive for us. It enabled us to employ disability officers, one of them working in conjunction with the Cheshire County FA.

"The fund started in a small way but through those seeds we have been able to set up a football development scheme for children and adults with disabilities and physical impairments."

Susan Bencheikh said: "I'm sure Sam would be pleased to see the work the fund has been able to achieve. Sam touched so many people's lives and was a brilliant sportsman. A big part of his life included work with disabled people, through Tranmere in the Community.

"He wanted everyone who shared his love of football to be able to take part, whatever the circumstances."

The charity raises money through the Wirral Walk which takes place this year on May 22 and through the Sam Bencheikh Memorial Cup, an annual football match played between the teachers of Caldy Grange Grammar School and Wirral Grammar School which will be staged at Prenton Park on May 13.

For more information about the fund, contact Steve Williams 0151 608 2354.