Two of Norwich City's key players have shown their gratitude to hospital staff who cared for their new babies by unveiling a major prize draw.

Josh Sargent and Ben Gibson both recently became fathers - the latter for the second time -with their partners giving birth at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

However, both children experienced challenging starts to life and required treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the hospital.

Eastern Daily Press:

Centre-back Gibson recently spoke of the support his family had received after baby Mylie was born two months premature.

Now, the 31-year-old and top scorer Sargent have pooled together to give something back to the department that cared for their new arrivals.

They have donated a haul of signed City memorabilia - including shirts, match-worn boots and match balls for the hospital to raffle off to eager collectors. 

The prizes include:

Eastern Daily Press:

  • Home and away shirts signed by Sargent, Gibson, Angus Gunn, Sydney van Hooijdonk, Shane Duffy and Borja Sainz
  • Match-worn boots signed by Gabriel Sara
  • A match ball from an FA Cup tie

Eastern Daily Press:

The department hopes to use proceeds from the raffle to purchase special prams which can hold oxygen cylinders and observation monitors.

The prams would allow families on the ward to take their babies for walks off the unit without interrupting treatment.

Eastern Daily Press:

Kate MColl, NICU family care sister at the N&N, said: "We are so grateful to Josh and Ben for supporting our NICU by donating these wonderful items.

"We hope we can raise enough funds to buy the prams which will allow parents to take their babies off the unit for short periods of time."

Raffle tickets costs £5 for a book of five and can be bought from the N&N Hospitals charity hub, by phone at 01603 287107 or online at https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/JEXZNXFVMUL5Q