A Love Island star has leant her support to charity football tournament kicking off in Mile End.

Camilla Thurlow, a bomb disposal expert and runner-up on the summer TV behemoth with boyfriend Jamie Jewitt last year, will send a special message to players at the Balls Not Borders kickabout at Mile End Leisure Centre.

Around 20 teams have already signed up to the contest on Sunday, September 9, which raises money for humanitarian charity Help Refugees.

“She’s actually recorded a video message for us, which we will be releasing next week,” organiser James Hitchings-Hales told the Advertiser.

Describing the event in Burdett Road, the 25-year-old said: “We’re going to be playing sort of like a World Cup group stage structure. Every team will be named after a country which hosts the most refugees in the world: Italy, Turkey, Germany, for example.

“Over lunch we’re going to have poetry, music, a house bank playing funk and soul, and someone from Help Refugees will be coming down to tell us about their work.”

Since leaving the Love Island villa, Camilla, from Dumfries, has joined Help Refugees on visits to migrant centres in Calais, Dunkirk and Thessaloniki, Greece.

The 28-year-old also campaigned for child refugees’ rights with Dubs Amendment namesake Lord Alfred Dub, one year on from the demolition of the Calais Jungle migrant camp.

This work, added James, was a perfect match for the “youth-led, new and fresh” charity their football contest supports.

“Help Refugees are quite a special charity, really — 95 per cent of all of their fundraising goes directly to grassroots organisations on the ground fighting the refugee crisis all over the world,” he said.

His campaign group, Balls Not Borders — formed with fellow Bow activists David Tran and Vinh Ton — has waved the £100 team entry fee for two teams made of former refugees.

Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs will present winners with the inaugural ‘Choose Love’ trophy, with the top scorer receiving a football signed by the Cardiff City squad.

The trio need to raise another £500 to meet their fundraising target of £2,500.”

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