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Charity auction initiated by Ambassador Libor Sečka helped raise £ 5,500 for seven-years-old British girl fighting with cancer

Joint auction of signed jerseys donated by London's West Ham United players Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal and Prague's Slavia Abdallah Sima helped raise more than £ 5,500. The money will go to the Isla’s Fight fund, which helps raise money to help finance the treatment of little Isla Caton's disease.

The auction was organized jointly by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London, West Ham United and Slavia Prague. It took place from Thursday 11th to Wednesday 17th of March on the London club's website and managed to broke twice the previous record of £ 1,800, for which West Ham's jerseys went in the past. Vladimír Coufal's jersey was sold for £ 2,510, Tomáš Souček's for £ 2,010 and Abdallah Sima's for £ 1,005.

The initiator of the event was Ambassador Libor Sečka, who learned about Isla's illness and approached the Czech players of West Ham and their club, as well as their former club Slavia Prague, to help him with the arrangement. The ambassador himself managed to win the jersey of Abdallah Sima, Slavia Prague then purchased the jersey of Vladimír Coufal.

Ambassador Sečka said: "I feel happy we managed to do something useful for little Isla in this nice gesture of human solidarity. At the same time, I am really glad we could do it jointly - the Embassy, West Ham United, Slavia Prague and the big army of fans on both sides, which is fulfilling me with hope we could do even greater things together in the future."

Isla, seven, was diagnosed with the rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma at the age of two and underwent lifesaving surgery at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, but it is still fighting with the disease. West Ham United has been helping raising money for her treatment already for several years.