Not many people can say they’ve had a kick-about on the lawn at Buckingham Palace with the future King – but June Kelly can.

The 54-year-old, who has an MBE for services to sport, met Prince William alongside Micheal Owen just before she won her Pride of Britain Award in 2013 – and still has the photograph of the three of them, and her mum Kay, hanging on her wall to prove it.

“I’m looking at it now,” explains June, in an interview with The Mirror. “He’s an Aston Villa fan, and I am a Spurs fan so we were having banter about who was going to win as they were playing each other the next day. He is so down to earth.”

Hours after her visit to the palace, June found herself on stage holding two trophies aloft for the crowd. The first was her FA Football Champion Pride of Britain Award, and the second was the 1966 Jules Rimet world cup trophy, that had just been presented to her by Geoff Hurst and Martin Chivers to hold as a surprise.

It was amazing,” says June. But to the many people watching in the room that night, and on their television sets at home – as well as the countless children and their families she has helped – it is, in fact, June that is “amazing.”

The sports coach, from Cheetham, Manchester, started Abraham Moss Warriors football club in May 2000, when she was working at a school. “The kids wanted to carry on playing outside the school. and there was nothing going on in the area, and it was just lots of gangs and some antisocial behaviour going on in the area,” explains June. “So, we worked with the police at the time to get some funding and decided to start a club for local kids, to give them a chance to do something.”

Beginning with just 12 players, she now has over 452 kids come through the doors each week which boasts 16 football teams plus a variety of other sports teams, including cricket, tennis, badminton and basketball. The club charges children £1 a week, and takes kids to Cheetham Hill or Crumpsall which is an area that is deprived.

“We work with kids below the poverty line. So kids that can’t afford traditional clubs. You have to live in our catchment area,” explains June. “We don’t take kids from out-of-area and we just take kids from the very deprived area where we are. I live in the same area. We get 120 kids on Friday night and on Saturday night we get about 220 kids that come in, and take over the whole leisure centre.

“The kids can do swimming, gym, fitness sessions, squash, football, badminton, table tennis, and it only costs £1 for three hours.” As much as the club is a place to have fun, some of the kids have also gone on to play at a high level. Osayamen Osawe, 30, who went on to play for Bunsleague in Germany and also another young girl who currently plays for Man City.

After winning the Pride of Britain Award in 2013, Abraham Moss Warriors was able to expand. “We got National Lottery funding, before Pride of Britain it was mainly a football club, now we’re transformed into a massive big hub of the community really. We are involved in so many things, and so many more projects because of that,” she says.

The club also provides free breakfast, lunch and dinner in the school holidays, as well as giving kids food parcels and vouchers to take home. English and Maths tuition, and Abraham Moss Warriors was even once visited by a NASA astronaut Tim Peake to speak to the kids. “Parents below the poverty line are able to use the gym, and they get £20 vouchers per child,” says June. “They wouldn’t be able to afford to go to the gym themselves. So they get into it and they also get extra money to help feed the children at the same time.”

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