Fans Encouraged To Support Shoe Aid Against Swansea On Saturday

Derby County will be hosting Shoe Aid when Swansea City visit Pride Park Stadium on Saturday 1st December - and the club are asking Rams fans to bring their unwanted shoes to help the cause.

With Christmas fast approaching, it is a perfect opportunity to get rid of any old or unwanted footwear.

Volunteers will be on hand outside the DCFCMegastore next to Rammie and Ewie's Play Pen from 12:30pm until kick off at 3pm. Shoe Aid have asked that shoes are brought in carrier bags and preferably with the laces tied.

Lee Todd, who spent 27 years in footwear retail, founded Shoe Aid in 2010 after surviving an accident when a car he was travelling was stuck by a lorry. He decided after avoiding death to set up a charity to help others and has so far has sent half a million shoes globally including to disaster zones such as the Nepal earthquake and the hurricane in British Virgin Islands.

Two million shoes are dumped every year in UK landfill and the 2017 Evening Post Environmentalist of the Year nominee is working to reduce this by sending the unwanted shoes to the 1.5 billion people around the world without footwear, 300 million of which are children.

Four million, or one in three, children in the UK are wearing ill-fitting shoes, whilst 55,000 homeless people don’t have footwear fit for purpose and as a result are developing trench foot. Globally, 70 million children are deprived of an education because they have no shoes and 30,000 people die each year from foot infections.

Derby County and Shoe Aid appreciate any footwear donations you are able to give.

Following the fixture, be sure to keep your eyes on Derby County's digital channels to see just how many shoes the Rams manage to collect.