THE chairman of Keighley Cougars has set a fundraising target of at least £1 million in memory of Danny Jones.

The stand-off died from a suspected cardiac arrest on Sunday after he collapsed during a game against London Skolars.

On Monday a fundraising website was set-up in Mr Jones’ name for the RFL Benevolent Fund, which has so far raised more than £73,000.

Yesterday, Rugby Football League’s chief executive, Nigel Wood, said the money would go to Mr Jones’ widow, Liz, and five-month-old twins and set a £100,000 target.

But now Cougars' chairman Gary Fawcett has upped the target of the The Danny Jones 29 Fund to £1m.

In a statement he said: “At the time of writing, Danny’s fund that has been set up for Lizzie, Bobby and Phoebe stands at £72,000 and I know that there is a huge amount of fundraising to be done over the coming weeks.

“We all know that there will be a wave of donations from all the rugby league clubs, in particular, over the course of next week which will smash the RFL’s current £100k target for the fund. This is fantastic and amazing and yet it is simply not good enough.

“I met Lizzie yesterday. She said that she didn’t want Danny’s death to be in vain and would like to see the changes in sport that would ensure that what happened to Danny on Sunday would never happen again. This clarified my ambition for Danny’s fund and I hope you share this ambition.”

Mr Fawcett said he could only see two simple objectives, to provide future financial stability for Mr Jones’ family and give Mrs Jones the financial capability to make necessary changes in the sport to ensure that what happened to Mr Jones would not happen again.

“As a everyone will appreciate, the fund needs to be much, much bigger for the objectives to be achieved. Our club is planning at least five months fundraising for www.justgiving.com/dannyjones29/ and, although we will raise a significant amount of cash, it still will not be enough,” Mr Fawcett said.

“Last night, during my interview with Eddie on Boots n All, I stated an objective of £250k for the fund. Overnight I have thought about it and the fund needs to be over £1m and we should all share this target. It’s all very well having a target without a plan so, overnight, I have thought about this as well.

“Before I went to bed last night I spotted that ex-Premiership footballer @StanCollymore, with over 700,000 Followers, had tweeted support. This got me thinking because this tragedy is about sport and transcends sport.

“This tragedy is about a Welsh International sportsman who died whilst playing the sport he loved. This tragedy is about a family that has lost someone they love in terrible circumstances. This tragedy is about a loving wife and mother who now has to bring up two babies without their Daddy.”

He called on other sports organisations and the Welsh community to also back the appeal.