A CHARITY football match raised more than £1,700 to help the nurses who cared for a Shildon man who died of cancer.

Stuart Boddy, 25, a regular in the Wear Valley Sunday League for nearly ten-years with The Three Tuns Football Club, died in March 2011.

He received care from the nurses at the Shildon and Aycliffe Integrated Team.

Angela Boddy, of Shildon, the father-of-three’s fiancée who took his surname, held a fundraising match in recognition of the nurses’ care.

A Three Tuns XI took on a team made up of players from Mr Boddy’s former employers of Ebac and DHL/Argos.

It was held at Stadium 2000, on Middridge Lane, opposite Shildon Sunnydale Leisure Centre.

Miss Boddy, 27, said: “It was absolutely brilliant. So many people wanted to play and it shows how popular Stuart was.

“I think The Three Tuns won 6-2. I was really surprised by the response and Bill Drennan, landlord of The Three Tuns, gave £100 alone. We raised £1,781.”

The game was started by the couple's three-year-old son Thomas and his uncle Gavin Williams and featured Mr Boddy's 13-year-old nephews Callum Williams and Jamie Nixon.