KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 — A whopping €230,000 (RM1,128,496.49) was raised in 24 hours in aid of the Netherlands' Children Cancer Free Foundation (KiKa) from the sale of 15,000 teddy bears placed in a stadium.
The plush toys, clad in football t-shirts, were used to fill the empty Abe Lenstra stadium in Netherlands during the FC Emmen and SC Heerenveen match on Saturday.
The match was played in an empty stadium due to tightened Covid-19 measures.
According to a statement posted on the club's website, KiKa faced difficulties in raising funds due to the pandemic.
“As a result, the foundation misses a large part of the income needed to fund cancer research,” said the club, adding that the foundation worked with pharmaceutical company MSD for the project.
Founder and director of KiKa Frits Hirschstein told the website that care for children with cancer was postponed due to the pandemic.
“Due to Covid-19, matches also had to be played in empty stadiums. So we thought why not put KiKa bears in Heerenveen shirts where we express our support to all children with cancer and let them know we will not forget them.”
