Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford has received praise from Hollywood actress Kate Winslet for his work to help vulnerable children in the UK receive free school meals.
The Manchester United star, who was made an MBE last year, made headlines after he encouraged the government to U-turn on plans to scrap school meals over the summer holidays during the pandemic.
Rashford, who grew up in Withington before moving to Wythenshawe, has previously spoken about how his own family often had to rely on free school meals and food banks growing up.
In an interview on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this weekend, Kate Winslet praised the England striker for his initiative and other campaign work to help vulnerable children in the country.
Speaking about fundraising efforts and the ‘plight of the individual', the Oscar winner recounted a conversation with her son about Rashford while watching England’s 3-0 win against Wales at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar last week.
She explained: “I was watching the match the other night with my son and I turned to him and I said, ‘Do you have any idea how extraordinary that man is?’ and Joe said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, he’s just scored in this..’, and I’m like, ‘I’m not talking about football, let me tell you exactly what that guy did during Covid.’
“And I mean, hats off to someone like him and we do have to use our voice and try to at least raise awareness or ruffle feathers. We have to ruffle up the system. If it isn’t working, change it, fix it, do better.”
Appearing on the BBC to promote her latest film I Am Ruth, the actress also spoke about her recent £17,000 donation to help a mother in Scotland afford to keep running life support for her 13-year-old daughter.
Winslet said she was ‘absolutely destroyed’ after reading about Freya, who has severe cerebral palsy and relies on receiving oxygen for chronic breathing problems. She later reached out to the family via GoFundMe to donate towards their cause.
“It absolutely destroyed me,” Winslet said. “I just thought on what planet is anyone going to let that happen, this is completely, completely wrong."
She added: "And it just felt - I just - it was just wrong to me that this woman was going to suffer and that she should have been in any way as a mother forced to make such a heart-breaking decision because she simply didn't have the support and couldn't pay the bills.
"I just couldn't let that happen."
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