A PIECE of football memorabilia is being auctioned to raise awareness of a lung disease which killed a legend of the sport.

Nicola Fraser and Paul Stewart, from Basingstoke, organised an online Fantasy Football competition to raise money for Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis after Nicola's father died of the disease in 2016.

Peter Taylor, best known as Brian Clough's assistant manager, also died of the disease, in 1990, which prompted Nicola and Paul to run competition, which the Taylor family donated a large limited-edition photo montage to.

The winner of the montage, James Hare, 18, from Duffield near Derby, beat off competition from dozens of others in the Peter Taylor Memorial League on the Fantasy Football website and is now auctioning off the piece of memorabilia.

Mr Taylor's daughter, Wendy Dickinson is a founding trustee the charity Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis which has raised over £1m in just over four years to fund research and help support the thousands of people affected by the disease in the UK.

She said: “My brother, Phil and I have donated a large limited-edition photo montage as a prize for this competition.

"It shows [Nottingham] Forest’s back-to-back European Cup winning side of 1979 and 1980 and was produced by the captain John McGovern. He got it signed by all the players.

"A copy was presented to each member of the team and to our late mum, Lilian, and I don’t believe it has been made publicly available before."

Nicola Fraser added: “My dad was only 70 when he passed away in February 2016. He was only diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the November before he died.

"The disease progressed quickly, and he died suddenly in hospital after a two-day stay.

“His brother, Christopher also has IPF and although his health has deteriorated over the last few

months he is fighting as hard as he can.

"We had a collection for Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis at dad’s funeral and we have taken part in events from 10km to marathons in the name of my dad.

“The inspiration for the Peter Taylor Memorial Fantasy Football League came after meeting Wendy at the Clough Taylor Run last year.

"We thought it was a fitting way to honour her father, another sufferer, and raise funds and as much awareness as possible for this little-known disease.

"We will continue to work with the charity and thank them for all of their support."

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis that kills more than 5,000 people every year in the UK – more than die from leukaemia.

More than 50 per cent of patients die within three to five years of diagnosis.

For further information, go to actionpulmonaryfibrosis.org.