Gareth Bale gets MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours list after remarkable NHS donations emerged
The Wales national team manager recently described him as an 'icon' for his charity work
Welsh footballing superstar Gareth Bale has been given an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Listed under his full name Gareth Frank Bale, he is receiving it for services to football and charity.
During the pandemic it emerged he had made a £500,000 donation to help NHS staff in Wales. Bale and his wife Emma gave the huge sum of money to the official NHS charity of Cardiff and Vale Health Board. The charity focuses on providing extra services for patients and staff that normal NHS funds don't provide.
"The University of Wales Hospital holds a special place in my heart. It is where I was born and it has provided great support to my family, friends and the wider community.
"Me and my family would like to show our support. Keep up the good work, you are doing an amazing job. Thank you very much," the player, who is out of contract, said. Within the same 24 hours it also emerged he gave €500,000 to the Spanish health service. You can read how much Bale has earned at Real Madrid here.
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Bale, who was born in Cardiff, was one of a trio of iconic sports stars who attended the city's Whitchurch High.
His Wales manager, Rob Page, recently described him as a role model whose charitable work has been just as valuable a contribution to Wales as anything he's done for the national football side.
"We had to do a photograph recently for a car company, one of the sponsors, where we were handing over a car, and they wanted Gareth in the picture," he said. "I asked why and it was because he had donated a large sum of money to the hospital. A lot of people don't see that. He's not the type of character to shout that from the rooftops. I'm going to do it for him. He won't do it and then we don't get to hear about the good he does.
"It's not just what he has done on the pitch, it's what he is. He's a role model to the younger kids and things like that shows he has got class." You can read more on that here.
Page joked that if he scores a winner in the crucial World Cup qualifier on Sunday, he would build him a statue himself.
"He's been a legend. He's a Welsh icon, absolutely. And not just what he has done on the pitch. A lot of people don't know what he does off the pitch with regards to charities."