A football fan has lost decades’ worth of memorabilia, including nearly 50,000 programmes, after his shed caught fire.
Bristol City supporter Ben Grice, 22, had been passed down the collection ten years ago from his grandfather.
He was devastated when he was called home on April 13 to find almost his entire collection destroyed by a suspected electrical fire.
Ben, from Huntley, Gloucestershire, said: ‘I got a call from my dad saying everything was gone.
‘I was devastated. That’s so many memories passed down the family, it’s all gone now.’
He shared his story soon after, and to his amazement, kind strangers stepped in.
He has received more than 25-30 emails from people offering their own historic memorabilia in the past week.
Bristol City legend Scott Murray even donated a match shirt to help build his collection back up.
Ben added: ‘I want to get back what I have lost.
‘It feels so good when people get in touch offering to donate things.’
Ben’s shed contained around 50,000 programmes from the past 70 years.
It was also stuffed with countless signed t-shirts, posters, pictures, tickets and team sheets.
He said his grandfather began collecting in the fifties and Ben began adding his own finds.
Just 500 of the 50,000 programmes in the collection, dating back to the 1950s, survived the blaze.
Ben said: ‘I want to get back what I have lost.
‘It feels so good when people get in touch offering to donate things.
‘It’s very surreal at the moment.
‘There are a lot of good people out there.’
Ben has made a GoFundMe to help replace his memorabilia.
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