'Well done' message from Marcus Rashford for Burnley's little champion fundraiser who raised over £1,000 to help feed hungry children

The player, who was awarded an MBE for a campaign he spearheaded to urge the government to extend its provision of free school meals, responded to a tweet put out by Alfie Smith's proud mum, Lauren Hughes.

He retweeted a photograph of Alfie handing over 200 Easter eggs to Burnley Community Kitchen with the tagline 'Bless him, well done Alfie.'

Lauren said: "I just put the tweet up and didn't really think I would get a response. Alfie was so happy to see the message as he is a big Marcus Rashford fan.

"Alfie just takes it all in his stride as he didn't do any of this for the attention, he just wanted to do his bit to help people."

Rashford became a national hero when he campaigned for free school meals for more than 1.7M children.

And the campaign stirred Alfie into action when he heard that some children were going hungry during the pandemic.

He asked his family what he could do to help so they came up with the idea of walking the eqiuivalent of a marathon. Alfie raised the magnificent total of £900 by clocking up an average of three miles a day around his home in Brunshaw with his mum and dad, Jonathon Smith.

Once the challenge was completed the family went on a shopping spree at Morrisons in Todmorden and the organisations that benefitted from a mixture of cash and food donations from Alfie were: St Matthew's and St Stephen's churches in Burnley, Charter House Resource Centre in Morse Street, Burnley, Burnley Community Kitchen and Todmorden Foodbank.

Impressed by Alfie's efforts Unite North West 64 branch, where his grandad works, donated a further £200 which Alfie put towards buying 200 Easter eggs for the Burnley Community Kitchen Easter appeal.

Clarets' fan Alfie has also received a letter of commendation from his favourite club and a personal letter of thanks from Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær thanking him for his 'amazing efforts.'