A young England supporter won praise of football fans Thursday after he gave up tickets to watch the Euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark to donate life-saving stem cells.
Sam Astley, 24, from Sedgley in the West Midlands, was set to attend the game at Wembley on Wednesday evening after his girlfriend won tickets in a competition.
But he gave up the chance and watched the match from a hospital bed after he volunteered to donate stem cells and bone marrow to help a blood cancer sufferer through UK charity Anthony Nolan and was informed he matched with a patient.
He and his girlfriend gave their tickets to relatives.
Astley’s story was initially reported by the Stourbridge News, a local newspaper, but was then picked up more widely including on social media such as the Twitter account of former England star player Gary Lineker, now a BBC football commentator with eight million followers.
“Amazing. Can you help @FA @England ?” Lineker tweeted.
Later Thursday, an official sponsor of Euro 2020, smartphone company Vivo Europe, tweeted that it wanted to help Astley attend the final.
We saw this and would like to help Sam go to the final on Sunday,” the company tweeted.
