Ki backs Stepping Stones Appeal as charity jersey sales soar

The eye-catching jersey, which incorporates the official Stepping Stones blue and green colour scheme with the familiar Ospreys black, went on sale last Monday and was worn by the team for the first time in Friday night's nailbiting LV= Cup win over Gloucester at the Liberty Stadium. It will be worn once again when the team travels to the southwest to face Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Saturday evening.

Velindre Cancer Centre's Stepping Stones Appeal is the official Ospreys charity for 2012/13, with the region supporting their efforts to raise the money necessary to continue to fund and expand their research programmes in a number of ways including a donation from every jersey sold, bucket collections and a number of high profile events.

The jersey went down well with supporters and even South Korean international footballer Ki, a winner of both the South Korean and Asian Footballer of the Year Awards, has donned the shirt in support of Stepping Stones. He took time out from life in the Barclays Premier League to back the appeal as you can see in this photo taken at the Liberty Stadium, home of both the Ospreys and the Swans.

More than double the number of shirts were sold in the first week as was the case with last year's charity jersey, and with just 1,000 on sale at the Ospreys Club Shop and online at shop.ospreysrugby.com, it is clear that the 2012/13 version is going to be in demand in the build up to Christmas so supporters wanting to show their support for both the region and Stepping Stones will need to act swiftly to secure theirs.

Velindre Cancer Centre launched the Stepping Stones Appeal, a lung cancer research programme, to both increase awareness of their work and to raise the money necessary to continue to fund and expand their research programmes.

Following the success of a number of fundraising initiatives including the Captains Climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mair's Walk and the Stepping Stones Rugby Gala Dinners, over £350,000 has been invested enabling the Wales Cancer Bank to be able to collect lung cancer samples for the first time ever. These samples will then be used by researchers around the world to improve understanding of lung cancer, which will help in the search for new treatments.