Walk4Emma

T'Clasico is almost upon us once again. The Premier League clash between Bolton Wanderers and Wigan is important. Both teams reside in the drop zone and both desperately need three points if they are to have a legitimate shot at survival. Football is all well and good. To many of us, it is a way of life. This weekend however, football has to take a back seat to a brave little girl.

Emma Hoolin is a five year old girl from Wigan and she is suffering from Neuroblastoma, a very serious childhood cancer. There will be a large number or people walking to the Reebok this weekend to raise money for her very costly but even more necessary treatments. Hit the jump to learn more but we strongly encourage you to take a look at the JustGiving page set up for her and donate anything you can. A couple quid (or dollars) from a bunch of people will go a long way.

Emma's treatment was going to cost £211,000 and her supporters had set up web pages in order to raise the money. The treatment is taking place in the United States and isn't covered under the NHS. Setbacks and further stages of this initial treatment have raised the cost to £350,000. The appeal is £40,000 short of their goal and that's where the Walk4Emma comes in.

The distance between the DW and Reebok stadiums is less than ten miles and while Wigan Athletic will make the trip by bus, there will be a huge number of fans that will instead walk the route. It will be a good time and hopefully will raise money for the little girl's treatments.

The Emma Hoolin appeal attempted to raise money for Emma's treatment at this season's first Wigan - Bolton match at the DW Stadium. A number of supporters asked fans at the stadium to get their coppers out and toss spare change into collection tins around the stadium. On that day, they raised £6600 from donations, 5% of which came from Bolton players and staff.