The Pixsale - one year on

The Pixsale, initiated by Gary Jackson via 'The Silkweb', raised over £8,000. Gary sprang into action on the day the fine was announced and later, donated all proceedings to the Trust. This donation remains our single biggest donation and everyone is very appreciative of Gary's hard work during that time.

As well as the money, the Pixsale offered the chance to leave comments, turning a great fundraising idea into a petition. These messages of support were as welcomed as the money they brought with them.

Gary has written his version of events for us.

THE SOS PIXSALE

It was just after 5.15pm on Monday 19th December 2005 and I was just driving home past Zeneca in Alderley Edge when my phone vibrated in my pocket. The traffic lights had just turned to red so I decided to take a look... "we have been fined £300,000 by the FA which has to be paid sharpish" it read. My concentration had gone... a car beeped me from behind as the lights were on green.

The remaining 15 minutes to get home had me thinking of ways the club could raise the cash to pay this awful fine. I got straight onto TheSilkWeb.com message board and chatted with a few people. Then the idea hit me... had been looking at a site made by a young lad in York for the past three months where by a company would buy "pixels" to advertise on the said webpage and he was hoping to raise a million dollars from it - which he did! Now if I could do something like that but to raise money for the fine...

By 9pm that night the Save Our Silkmen pixsale was born. The website allowed football fans to buy a square on the webpage for £1.25 which would display the team they supported and a good luck message. I had already collected over £100 from it before I went to bed.

The next morning I checked my emails and I had well over £300's worth of donations. It was going to be a busy few weeks for me.

The following week I was up until god knows what hour adding the donations and updating the sites. It was hard work but very rewarding. By New Years Eve the total stood at just under £3000.

Teams from far and wide donated to the cause. From Fortuna Dusseldorf to Harrogate Railway they all helped out.

A big Macc fan contacted me in January telling me that Liverpool striker Peter Crouch had donated a signed shirt to auction off for the SOS appeal. We decided to put it on eBay and that the total raised would be added onto the Pixsale. Within a day the shirt was on £1000 - we couldn't believe it! But it was true and the Norwegian winner of the shirt promptly paid for it.

The Save Our Silkmen Pixsale came to close at the end of February with a staggering £8120.28 raised by football fans all over the world helping out Macclesfield Town.