Port Vale Football Club has donated £2,000 from the FA Community Shield Fund to two local charities.

Chairman Norman Smurthwaite handed over the cheques of £1,000 each to representatives of the Douglas MacMillan Hospice and the Donna Louise Trust on Thursday.

The fund is distributed by The Football Association between the 124 clubs that took part in the 2014/15 FA Cup first round proper and comes from money raised at the Community Shield final.

The Douglas MacMillan Hospice provides services for adults with life limiting illnesses and also gives support to their families while the Donna Louise Trust delivers a quality palliative care service to children, young people, and their relatives.

The club works closely with both organisations and chairman Norman Smurthwaite was delighted to be able help with their fundraising.

He told port-vale.co.uk: “It’s fantastic that the club can help these two brilliant charities in this way as part of the FA Community Shield Fund.

“We work with the Douglas MacMillan Hospice and Donna Louise Trust on a regular basis and to be able to support them in this way is very pleasing.

“The work they do is there for all to see and we’re proud to be associated with them both and for them to be our chosen charities for the money we have received from the FA Community Shield Fund.”

Dennis Vickers, an Ambassador of Douglas MacMillan, said the hospice was very grateful to receive the cheque and explained where the money will go to work.

He said: “We have always been supported by Port Vale. We’ve had collections when the club has played and we’re just very grateful. We have to raise £11,250,000 a year and the money gets to work straight away.

“As soon as this money goes into the bank, it’s providing care for the people who have life shortening illnesses and their families and I don’t think we can stress too much how important that is for people.

“To be supported by a very big football club is really gratifying, we’re really very pleased.”

Nicola Wrench, a fundraiser from the Donna Louise Trust, added: “I don’t think people understand sometimes that you haven’t got all this money sitting there in a pot.

“We literally live month by month. The money that comes in now will get spent next month, it isn’t that we have got loads of money sitting there just for a rainy day.

“So it makes all the difference that the money has been donated.”