Northern Ireland v Germany

THE WEE MON HAS MADE A HUGE IMPACT

Words Heidi McAlpin

You know you’ve made it when you are immortalised in plastic. And it’s all the sweeter when your pocket-sized self makes tons of cash for charity and gets to travel the globe.

Such is the happy life of The Wee MON, an ingenious creation from those wonderful people at the London Northern Ireland Supporters’ Club. “The club tries to do something different every year for our 200 members,” explained chairman Neal Anderson. “We’ve had scarves, backpacks, luggage tags and even a Pat Jennings Subbuteo figure. “For the 2016 Euros we recorded the single ‘Making Our Way To Paris’, which raised money for charity. This time we thought it would be a nice idea to have a mini figure of Michael O’Neill.” And so The Wee Mon was born. However, with a minimum order of 2500 figures, the club were left with, literally, a GAWA of MONs. Then came the brainwave that would benefit 20 Northern Ireland charities to the tidy tune of £10k.

“We decided to sell them for a fiver each and asked our membership to nominate smaller community charities close to home,” explained Neal. “Most of our members are ex-pats living in London and the South East and it’s good to spread the love and keep those local connections.” Since then The Wee MON has raised money for charities as diverse as Homeless Belfast to Women's Aid NI and Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke to the Buddy Bear Trust in Dungannon. “This week we sent out all the final cheques, which was a nice little surprise for some of them”, Neal revealed. “One group is using the money to help refurbish their counselling room, another is paying their rent for a month. It’s a real spread of the money going to

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