One of the things that Oxford United pride themselves on is being at the heart of the local community. That means working with local businesses organisations, schools, colleges and charities and this week saw a new role for one of the players as the club increased its links with Sobell House.
Sobell House will be well known to most fans and is a hospice based on the Churchill Hospital site, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
They offer specialist palliative care to those facing life threatening illness, death and bereavement in Oxfordshire. This encompasses physical, psychological, social and spiritual care and includes supporting their families and those close to them. They care for around 3,000 patients and their families every year and their mission is to enrich the lives of our patients and those who love and care for them. The aim is to make sure that excellent palliative and end of life care is available to everybody in our community who needs it.
We are delighted to announce that Josh Ruffels has accepted an invitation to become an Ambassador for this amazing place.
“I am very proud to have been asked” he told us. “Most people across Oxfordshire know what an amazing place Sobell House is and I would imagine that, sadly, many of our fans have needed their help and support in some way over the years.
“The club had been talking to them about helping to raise awareness and how we could do so much to help. Niall McWilliams came over to me after training one day and asked how I felt about being ambassador and I immediately said yes. I think right now with everything else that is going on we have a massive opportunity to play our part and raise awareness for things like this. So I talked to Tim Wraith at Sobell House and we worked out the best way of getting involved.
“In simple terms I am going to be an Ambassador for Sobell House and do all I can to try and get their name out there and support them in any way I can. It might be a case of a zoom call to families, or when it’s safe to do so then going in and visiting - I already spoke to the lads and they are just as keen to come along and play their part as well.
“We mentioned supporting their golf day - I am a keen golfer myself so that sounds ideal and if I can take along a good golfer like Anthony Forde and a terrible one like Matty Taylor it will kind of average itself out! But if having us there helps in any way then we will be there. It’s exciting and kind of humbling to be asked and I can’t wait to get started."
Find out more about the amazing work that Sobell House do HERE