Charity T-shirt sales show Leeds United fans are all heart

Kemar Roofe tries on the range's Pablo Hernandez T-shirt - complete with a tongue-in-cheek look of disdain.

United recently released a new range of T-shirts as part of their work for their chosen charity of the year, the Leeds General Infirmary-based Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF).

The tops have a heart-themed design, with each one featuring the name of the club, a player or head coach Marcelo Bielsa alongside an ‘I love’-style logo.

And today the Whites announced that, since the range’s launch at the end of last month, more than 1,000 of the T-shirts have been snapped up.

Leeds United's Pablo Hernandez sports the T-shirt bearing the name of team-mate Kemar Roofe.

That has in turn generated more than £5,000 for the CHSF, with £5 from each purchase going to the charity.

The players whose T-shirts have been the biggest sellers to date are Pontus Jansson, Pablo Hernandez and Kalvin Phillips, while the ‘I love Marcelo’ and ‘I love Leeds’ editions are also proving extremely popular.

A United spokeswoman said: “Our fundraising campaign with the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund has been brilliant this season, we’ve managed to create a lot of special moments for youngsters associated with the charity and raise awareness about the fantastic work they do in supporting the congenital heart ward at Leeds General Infirmary – but the main aim is to raise some much-needed funds for them.

“This initiative with the T-shirts has been brilliant because not only have our supporters been loving them, they’ve been generating money for the campaign as well that will go towards purchasing life-saving equipment and funding the refurbishment of the family facilities located at the hospital. A big thank you to everyone who has already purchased one!”

Barry Douglas and Adam Forshaw during a recent visit to LGI.

United’s players have paid a number of visits to LGI’s congenital heart ward since the charity link-up began in September.

Adam Forshaw, Luke Ayling and Barry Douglas are among the Elland Road favourites who have dropped in to spend time with young patients and their families.

The new T-shirts are on sale from United’s Elland Road superstore. People wanting to make online contributions to the fundraising are asked to search for ‘all leeds all heart’ on the Just Giving website.