TEENAGE soccer sensation Wayne Rooney is being invited to support a campaign to celebrate one of Helston's very own sporting legends.

The team behind a £25,000 bid to erect a statue of boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons in the town is hoping the Manchester United footballer will agree to back the appeal.

Rooney, who is said to be distantly related to the legendary Helston-born boxer, is being asked to make a financial contribution or donate an item of sporting memorabilia for auction.

Many people in Helston feel the achievements of Fitzsimmons, who became world champion at three different weights - a feat unrivalled to this day - should be more publicly celebrated in the town.

A campaign launched some time ago to give the boxer due recognition has now been taken up by Helston Rotary Club, which hopes to make the erection of a Fitzsimmons statue its community project for Rotary's centenary year in 2005.

Rotarian Mick Timpson said: "Every time you put up Helston on a website you get Flora Day and Bob Fitzsimmons. The guy was absolutely unique. There's a road named after him, and a plaque on a house, but there should be something more obvious to mark what he did. Other towns in Cornwall recognise their famous sons and so should we."

The plan is to commission local sculptor Terence Coventry, who created the An Gof statue in St Keverne, to produce a seven-foot-high bronze replica of Fitzsimmons, to be erected at a focal point in the town, possibly at Coronation Lake.

The rotary club is currently exploring sources of funding, but has said the appeal will be discontinued after mid-December if there are not enough pledges of cash to support the project.

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