Community Hero: Marie Higgins

Marie, also known as Mazza McGregor, received multiple nominations for the awards, which are being run in conjunction with Hannafin and the club’s Community Foundation, for her outstanding efforts to help support the patients of Pinderfields Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I just want to say thank you for being chosen”, the full-time mum told www.castlefordtigers.com.

“I’ve been a Cas fan for about 10 years now, I’ve got my son and my daughter into it as well. They both play for Cutsyke and two years ago I started playing myself. My daughter, Bethany, is in the Paws cheerleader programme as well, so she’s really excited about this.

“It all started when my nana was taken into hospital and diagnosed with COVID. She went in on a Sunday and the following day I asked the nursing staff if they needed anything. I explained I was quite well known in the area and wanted to help.

“They said they really needed toiletries as a lot of family members were unable to get down to see people on the ward and provide anything.

“I said I’d put it out to my friends that we needed donations for shampoo and shower gels, things like that, and at the end of the first week we’d managed to get enough to help 800 patients at Pinderfields Hospital. The second week I did the exact same for Leeds General Infirmary before coming into Castleford to do all the nursing homes in the area.”

Whilst Marie initially came to light in the local area for her work in supporting hospital and care home patients throughout the COVID-19 crisis, her efforts for the local community continued to increase in recent weeks, as she explains …

“My friend’s got a pizza shop in Castleford and he supplied me with 140 pizzas, which I gave out to carers who were working in nursing homes, plus the police and the ambulance station. I did donation packs for them as well, little pick-me-up things like tea and biscuits, for the police and ambulance staff as well.

“I started to get a bit of attention in the local papers and stuff and I decided to do a charity bike ride to raise money for families of COVID victims and that raised just under £1,900. I’ve done some extra activities myself to raise almost £1,300 to supply the hospitals with radios for the patients to listen to.”

As a thank you to Marie and a reward for being selected as a Community Hero, Hannafin Contractors will provide her with hospitality to a future Castleford Tigers match at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle, a personal video message from a Castleford player and a signed Tigers shirt.