A ROVERS fan’s love for loan star Harrison Reed, now better known as The Ginger Ninja, has helped raise around £600 for the midfielder’s charity of choice.

The Rovers loanee’s all-action displays have seen him become a hit with supporters since joining from Southampton.

Season ticket holder Jen Bellamy took it one stage further, creating pin badges with a unique design, with all proceeds donated to Nerve Tumours UK at Reed’s request.

But just why has the 23-year-old been the subject of such love so early in his Rovers career?

“We all have our favourite players over the years, ones that stand out as ‘special’, who strike a chord with us, who we’re especially chuffed to have wearing a Rovers shirt,” Jen explained.

“For me Harrison Reed stood out as one of those for me nigh on as soon as I saw him play – his speed, his energy, him not being afraid of sticking a tackle in and running after absolutely everything.

“Plus he’s one of those players that you watch and know there’s something special about – whether we’re lucky enough to get him to sign a contract to become permanently, properly one of ours or not, he’ll stand out as one of the ones we were fortunate to have playing for our team.”

After Reed was approving of his nickname, the idea for a ‘Ginger Ninja Appreciation Society’ pin badge came about. The design was drawn up, a printers found, before the final product arrived.

On her response to the take-up, with 250 sold at the home game against Sheffield Wednesday, she said: “The support I’ve had to help make this happen has been phenomenal.”

Jen said: “Rovers fans are amazing and within a couple of days we had enough people volunteering to pitch in with their £20 to not just cover the cost of the minimum order, but to go for the next quantity up (250), which would mean more potentially in the pot for the charity.”

“By the end of the week, the funds had been collected and transferred across to Lancaster Printers, based in Preston.

“Within a week from the logo being designed, the funds had been raised for them and the badges had gone into production.”

In the meantime, Reed had given his consent for the money raised to be given to Nerve Tumours UK, showing his support by buying a badge, as did fellow midfielder Elliott Bennett.

There was support to purchase the badges from 13 Rovers fans in all, including one from America.

“This was a massive team effort and I’m very grateful to absolutely everyone that helped,” Jen said.

“The final thank-you must go to Harrison Reed – if the Rovers fans didn’t rate him as much as we do, this could never have become a thing and we certainly wouldn’t have been able to raise as much as we did.”

The next job will be to raise enough funds for Rovers to sign ‘The Ginger Ninja’ on a permanent deal.