BOLTON Wanderers legends took to the football pitch to help seriously ill toddler Braiden-Lee Prescott.

Former Whites players John McGinlay, David Lee, Phil Brown, Mark Winstanley, Tony Kelly, and Gavin McCann joined current manager Owen Coyle on the pitch.

They played alongside celebrities including Waterloo Road stars Naveed Chaudhry and Reece Douglas and four members of the band Risk, who featured on The X Factor last year.

Their opponents were Samba, a Bolton team of semi-professional footballers who play for good causes.

Mark Halsey, the Premier League referee from Bolton who has himself battled cancer, officiated the match at Atherton’s Crilly Park.

It was organised to raise funds for Braiden-Lee, from Leigh, who turned three last week and is battling a rare form of neuroblastoma.

He was diagnosed with advanced stages of the cancer in February.

His parents, Stephanie Reece and Wayne Prescott, believe treatment in America could increase Braiden-Lee’s chances of survival by 25 per cent.

Miss Reece said: “I didn’t expect so many people to turn up for the match.

“We need to raise £250,000 and we have raised £12,000 so far. I have done fundraising before, but I have never been able to get so many people involved. The event at Crilly Park was a really big one.”

She said the treatment in Philadelphia can take place 100 days after Braiden-Lee has the stem-cell transplant and the transplant is going to be this week.

Miss Reece added: “Treatment would be a six-month course of injections.

“He is really happy, which keeps us strong,”

Despite going for regular treatment at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Braiden-Lee was able to enjoy his third birthday, which family and friends marked with a tea party.

His parents bought him an iPod so he could watch films and play games during his many hospital visits.

To help fundraise, visit braidenleeprescott.org.uk.