Paget Community Football club have released a limited edition shirt to help raise funds for cerebral palsy awareness.

Kian Butterfield, vice-president of the club, proposed the idea to the executives and parents of Eshan Smith Perinchief, who has a form of the disease that limits movement of his arms and legs, due to their association with the club and players.

Many at the club have known Smith Perinchief’s mother for a number of years and are using March, Cerebral Palsy Awareness month, to raise funds for the brave seven-year-old and the charity.

“A lot of us have grown up with Ehsan’s mother, who is from our neighbourhood,” Butterfield said.

“We all have that vested interest of community and friends so that brought us to guide people towards this movement.

“I brought the idea to the club and was thinking of ways we could get involved and give back late last year.

“There are other clubs around the island that do breast cancer awareness and things like that, but this cause resonated with us because it was someone in our area. Also the colours went well with ours. Our colours are green as well, so that all formed part of why it was significant to Paget Football Club.”

Butterfield is delighted that sales of the new shirt have gone well, with a new batch set to arrive shortly.

“To get the shirts you can reach out to the club via e-mail or social media,” Butterfield said.

“We do have more shirts coming in because the shirts sold rapidly in the past few weeks. It’s been a successful launch and there has been a ton of people buying and reaching out.

“We haven’t set a specific goal in terms of money, but we just wanted to see where it takes us and donate that money back to the charity.”

Butterfield is just one of the people inspired to make a difference by Smith Perinchief, with members of the local community and corporate partners stepping up to help an extraordinary young person.

“Ehsan is an inspirational young man and he’s been through a lot in his short time but he seems to be progressing well and it’s amazing to see the time that his mother and father invest in him,” Butterfield said.

“This would not have been possible without some of our sponsors so we also want to thank Athene, Ord Road Laundry, MB Enterprises and NT Transport for helping us with this initiative.”