FRIENDS and family of Thomas Alcock will be out in force on Sunday with their buckets.

They will descend on the first Leigh Centurions game of the season at Leigh Sports Village against Batley to collect for Footsteps for Thomas, the appeal to raise £50,000 to pay for the Lowton three-year-olds - who has cerebral palsy - to have pioneering surgery in America.

The total is currently hovering around the £20,000 mark and Tom’s mum Jill Cropley has been astounded by the public’s response.

She said: “The response has been amazing and the appeal is still going strong but I’m hoping to step things up a notch in March and start contacting big businesses to see if they can help.

“Tom is great, he is aware of what is going on but his legs are getting a bit worse which is just making us more determined.”