Barcelona player, Andrés Iniesta, has donated the football boots he was wearing when he scored against Chelsea to put Barça through to the Champions League final, to help a five-year-old child with cerebral palsy receive treatment in the USA.

The child's aunt, Encarna Pérez Martínez, from Almoradí (Alicante), who has spent years raising money to help her nephew and his parents travel to Philadelphia twice a year to receive the specialised therapy, started the ball rolling by sending a poster and a Barça shirt that she had bought to the star's family in the hope that he would sign them.

She planned to raffle the signed poster and shirt to raise money for the next session of therapy and was overwhelmed to discover that when they were returned to her duly signed by the Barça star, also included in the parcel were the very boots Iniesta was wearing when he scored against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals this year.

'A member of Iniesta's family had told me that there was another surprise in the parcel which could be used for another raffle, so I expected a signed ball or something like that,' said Encarna.  'But when we opened the parcel and found the boots we were overwhelmed.  We are so grateful,' she added.

Each trip to Philadelphia costs the family in the region of 10,000 euros and Encarna admitted that she was finding it hard to raise the money each time.  She told the press that she had put the boots 'in a very safe place' and that she knew Iniesta's family had given her something 'very, very valuable' and that she hoped to make 'the very best of the donation' and hopefully pay for several trips.

Almoradí town hall has offered to help her get maximum value from the donation and have advertised the raffle on their website. 

The local Barça fan club, which believes the boots, signed by the star and with his name and the number 8 on them, will generate a great deal of interest, has also offered to help sell raffle tickets to Barça fans around the country and abroad.