Hammers fans have raised £4,500 for the DT38 Foundation in an auction for the shirts worn during the Irons’ summer tour to Western Australia.
The beat Perth Glory and Tottenham Hotspur in thrilling style in front of over 70,000 fans at Optus Stadium in Perth, hosting thousands at an open training session and meeting many more at community events in and around the city.
The DT38 Foundation logo appeared on the Irons’ shirts for both matches, while the team also trained and warmed-up in DT38-branded t-shirts.
The male cancer charity was founded in memory of Perth-born Dylan Tombides, the promising Academy of Football player who passed away in April 2014, aged just 20, three years after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Tombides played youth football for the city’s Stirling Lions club – whose senior team is named Stirling Macedonia in recognition of its close links with the Macedonian Australian community of Western Australia – before being spotted by the Hammers and moving to east London at the age of 16 in 2010. A prolific centre-forward, the youngster made his first Premier League squad a year later and debuted in September 2012.