School pupils have carried on the legacy of a former classmate by holding a charity football match for the late pupil’s charity.

Ilford Recorder: Grace.Grace. (Image: Archant)

Year 11 boys at Chigwell School, High Road, Chigwell, took on a school staff team to raise money for former pupil Grace Boxall’s charity Smiles With Grace.

The charity kick-about managed to raise £500 for Grace’s charity, which she set up in 2011 before she died just before her 16th birthday in September last year after six years battling brain tumours.

The passionate fundraiser was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2007, with the tumour beginning to disappear in 2009.

Tragically, a brain haemorrhage in 2012, days before she was due to carry the Olympic torch, saw her back in hospital.

Ilford Recorder: Charity football match between students and staff for Smiles With Grace. Picture: Chigwell School.Charity football match between students and staff for Smiles With Grace. Picture: Chigwell School. (Image: Archant)

The teenager remained undeterred with her charity work and once told the Recorder “you’ve got to be positive”.

The football match, which was organised by Chigwell pupil Jusden Halabi, provided an exciting, goal-filled contest, with the Year 11’s coming out on top in a 4-3 win.

Chigwell school headmaster Michael Punt said: “It makes me very proud when I see pupils come together in this way, to organise an event like this for such a worthy cause.”

Miss Boxall raised more than £10,000 on her first Smiles With Grace event with a sponsored walk to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

The former Chigwell student had also received a Redbridge Young Citizen of the Year award in 2012 for her charity work.

Mr Punt added: “In her lifetime, Grace worked very hard to help others and it is very fitting that her friends should choose to support her charity in this way.”

The Year 11’s wore a specially commissioned football kit with purple and white jerseys to pay tribute to Grace’s charity who use the colours.