Leeds United first-team duo Alex Cairns and Lukas Nmecha dropped in on one of the Leeds United Foundation's Fit Generations sessions recently to take part in one of their chair-based exercise sessions that supports older adults.
As part of the Fit Generations programme, the Foundation provide residents and staff from care homes various opportunities, including visits to Elland Road and extra help from qualified coaches. For this special one-off session, two people from each of the care homes the club's official charity works with, where invited to LUDO to meet with the Whites goalkeeper and forward.
Surrounded by Leeds United memorabilia from varying seasons, Cairns and Nmecha were greeted by the participants on arrival, who enthusiastically voiced their passion for the club, before taking a seat and answering a handful of burning questions.
The pair were then called into action, handing out exercise packs that had been funded through Sophie Dales' incredible fundraiser earlier in the season, where she ran or walked 11k for 24 days of October to support the older adults across Leeds she hosts sessions for, raising £930 in total.
After going round each individual participant, having a chat and even some pictures, the first-teamers took their seats for a rendition of Marching on Together, a tradition that the attendees finish their sessions with every week!
Speaking after the session, goalkeeper Cairns said: "Coming down today, obviously for the Leeds United Foundation, has been brilliant. We wanted to congratulate and show our support for Sophie because she's put on this amazing sort of workshop for these guys in the care homes and we also wanted to have a bit of fun with them, laughing and joking.
"Sophie has been doing some great work with the fundraising, and getting all the people here some activity sets. It was really nice to see the community side of the club and hearing all the stories of how long they've been Leeds fans and everything - so yeah a really nice experience, and quite funny as well at times," Nmecha added.
Sophie Dales also provided some background on her fundraiser. She explained: "Last October I did a challenge where I was running and walking 11k a day for 24 days to provide care home packages to all the residents to help enable them to do exercise. This will hopefully enable them to keep moving even when we're not at the sessions with them which is great."
If you or someone you know would benefit from joining, please get in touch with the Leeds United Foundation by emailing [email protected].
