Friends and colleagues come together for annual Dan Kay Foundation charity match
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A memorial football match in memory of former ECHO journalist and Hillsborough campaigner has taken place. The Annual Dan Kay Memorial Trophy match was played for the third time at Liverpool's Kirkby Academy on Friday evening (November 21).Dan died suddenly in May 2023 aged 45.
He worked at the Liverpool ECHO between 2003 and 2021 across the news and sport teams. He pioneered digital journalism in the newsroom and helped lead the ECHO's coverage of the Hillsborough legal proceedings.The journalist and campaigner was later a regular contributor to the ECHO's sports team, sharing his deep love of Liverpool FC and its history with readers.Since Dan Kay's tragic passing in 2023, friends and former work colleagues at the Liverpool ECHO have teamed together to help raise funds for the foundation in his name and causes he supported.The money raised has funded a range of initiatives including suicide first aid training and mental health awareness sessions, food for vulnerable families and a range of extracurricular sessions for young people in Liverpool.In the months following his tragic passing in May 2023, one of his close friends and former ECHO colleagues Sam Carroll, 30, helped come up with the idea to host an annual charity match to commemorate Dan and help raise funds for his foundation.Reflecting on how the idea first came about, Sam said: "Back in 2023 when everyone had spoken and Liverpool had offered us the pitch, we said 'lets try and raise £1000 for three charities, we were looking to raise about £300 for three charities and that day we raised £6,500 and that weirdly was the seed then to actually create the foundation.
"The football match and the foundation always go hand in hand because we realised that for Dan Kay, people are willing to come, people are willing to donate and have ideas about what we can do next."While so many of his friends and colleagues came out in support yesterday as they put their boots on for the third annual charity match, Sam shared a touching tribute to Dan as he opened up about his own personal reasons for wanting to take part. He was always someone who you looked-up to, he literally never had a bad word about anyone."Yesterday's match ended in a 4-3 win to the Liverpool Echo, with goals scored by Adam Jones, Luke Sands, Finn Williams and Josh Williams, who scored a last minute winner.