The past 12 months have been difficult for everyone, but the West Ham family have really pulled together to support campaigns that are close to the Hammers fans’ hearts, as well as local projects which will help those most in need in our community here in Newham.

As a club, we’ve been coming up with new ways to help the people of east London, one of the worst affected areas in the UK. We partnered with local NHS trusts to support them through the pandemic, giving them shirts, signed framed prints, putting in calls of support to patients and doctors, as well as offering our support for their vital campaigns.

Most recently, the club donated more than 1,000 toys to local children - for the Newham Christmas Toy Appeal and Barking and Dagenham’s Christmas Cheer campaign - so that as many children as possible in this area had presents to wake up to on Christmas morning.

The players have been more than happy to throw our support behind these important campaigns. Our Players’ Project is two years old now and I’m really proud of the efforts of the players during that time - across the men’s, women’s and Academy squads there have been hundreds of hours of community support for a huge range of initiatives from helping the homeless, to careers advice, to spending time with our older fans.

The efforts of everyone at West Ham United during this difficult year have in many ways helped to bring us even closer as a team and lifted the spirits at the club. Now we need to focus on tackling the issue of poverty, which is a big concern locally.

As we look towards a brighter 2021, the club are focusing our attention specifically on key strands of the Players’ Project including poverty, equality and loneliness, so that we can do everything possible to help our local communities recover from the impact of Covid-19.