Sir Tom in tune with charity single

A pair of Preston friends whose musical tribute to Sir Tom Finney has been an internet video hit are releasing the song to raise money for one of the late football hero’s favourite charities.
The HawthornsThe Hawthorns
The Hawthorns

The Hawthorns – PNE fans and business partners Mark Collins and Glynn Parkinson – are hopeful their tune ‘Finney’s Lilywhites’, already viewed nearly 10,000 times on youtube and lep.co.uk and now available to buy, will “raise a load of money” for the Alzheimer’s Society.

The pair, who together run GreenSchemes Garden Design and Construction of Ashton, first recorded the song in January, planning to put it online as a tribute for Sir Tom’s 92nd birthday in April.

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Upon hearing news of Sir Tom’s passing in February, Mark said, they revised the lyrics and re-recorded the song to be a celebration of an amazing life.

The HawthornsThe Hawthorns
The Hawthorns

The public response has taken the pair completely by surprise. Glynn said: “We are shocked to see how many people have been interested.

“We have been getting messages of support from all over the world via Facebook and Twitter, which just goes to show Sir Tom Finney was respected all over the world.”

Mark said: “We hope to get a bit of momentum behind this as a charity single.

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“It would be great to get a PNE song into the charts as a thank you to Sir Tom Finney and raise a load of money for one of his favourite charities.”

Sir Tom FinneySir Tom Finney
Sir Tom Finney

The song is available to pre-order now on itunes, Amazon and other music download sites, with an official release on March 10. All pre-release purchases count towards first week sales, and the lads are hopeful enough people will pre-order to maybe sneak their tribute onto the charts and raise even more money for the good cause.

Speaking the day after last week’s emotional funeral Glynn said: “It was never in doubt that the people of Preston would turn out yesterday in their thousands. Sir Tom Finney was well respected not only as a footballer but also what he did for Preston and charity.”

Mark added: “Everyone turned out to thank Sir Tom the man rather than just the footballer.”

You can buy the charity single from Amazon and iTunes