A junior football coach has helped raise more than £1,000 for the family of Jordan Banks, the nine-year-old from Blackpool who died as a result of being struck by lightning on May 11.

Lee Ford from Douglas decided to raise money for the child’s bereaved family after he read what had happened.

He said: ’I’d seen it in the newspaper and looked it up online and I just couldn’t imagine the pain the parents went through.’

Lee had not raised funds before but the news particularly resonated with him due to having a family of his own and the fact that he coaches Douglas Athletic’s juniors.

’It really struck a chord with me because I have an eight-year-old and a 12-year-old. I can also relate to it as a coach who looks after nine to 10 year old children.’

The 34-year-old, who has been coaching for four years, wanted to do something to help so contacted other junior football teams around the island and asked if they would contribute.

Lee continued: ’We wanted to raise as much money as we possibly could and were hoping to get about £100 but raised much more than that.’

He asked each football coach if they would ask parents to donate spare change at upcoming matches.

’We were aiming for about £1 per child,’ he said.

Lee was hesitant to get the children on the football teams too involved due to the sensitive nature of the incident. He said: ’I found it resonated more with the parents than the children because it’s a sensitive subject.’

Exactly £1,007 was raised for the Banks family in total over two weeks.

Seven was the number Jordan wore and the number of his favourite player, Liverpool’s James Milner.

Kirsty Williams, Lee’s partner who is also a local football coach, explained how moved she was by Lee’s decision.

She said: ’I have been touched by the amount of people that donated, the kids that brought pocket money and the effort that my partner Lee put into this, for the Banks family.

’In such times, it’s so nice to see that people can achieve lovely things and pull together to help a family in such a painful situation.’

Lee added: ’I would urge people to look at the JustGiving page set up in his memory.’

More than £50,000 has been raised across the UK in Jordan’s name.