A FOOTBALL fan has spread the love of his lifelong favourite club across the world, collecting 150 donated shirts for children in Tanzania.

Bolton Wanderers fan Danny Thomas, 30, grew up in Leigh before becoming a P.E. teacher at a Dubai school.

In December, he called for fellow fans to donate their old and spare football shirts to support underprivileged grassroots football teams in Tanzania as part of BWFC's Kits for Kids campaign.

His collections at home and away games were a success, gathering around 150 shirts in just two months for children in the Arusha area of the country.

In February, Mr Thomas made the journey to Tanzania, where he distributed the kit between community projects and local schools at two locations.

At the Shamba Kipara Camp, Usa River, kit was handed out to orphaned children.

Mr Thomas then visited the township of Kiranyi, where kit was given to children in the church and school parish, which has just established a football team in the local community, looking to play regular fixtures to encourage a more healthy and active life.

Mr Thomas was helped along by the Bolton Wanderers commercial team and Paul Barnes, a Bolton resident with links to Tanzania.

Mr Barnes contacted Mr Thomas after seeing his campaign, offering to lend a hand. Mr Barnes has been stationed at Bolton Central on match days taking in kit.

Mr Thomas said: " I would like to thank all the BWFC supporters for their kind generosity and for donating all the kit.

"In total we received around 150 football shirts, that we were extremely grateful for.

These shirts will definitely go a long way to benefitting these people's lives, having seen the reaction on some of the children’s faces when receiving them, they were overjoyed and we have put these unwanted kits to good use which is a great thing for us all to do.

"Additionally, we now have an mini army of BWFC fans wearing and supporting the one and only Wanderers!”