While waiting for the Arsenal defender Justin Hoyte to call me back yesterday morning, Thierry Henry rings to say he wants to come on board. My roll call is looking pretty impressive for a gal who doesn't know her nutcracker from her nutmeg - I now have 11 clubs where I have entrees, over half the Premiership.
I'm trying to get every Premiership footballer to give a day's pay to nurses on May 13, the final day of the season, which coincides with the end of International Nursing Week. The £1.5m or more that the players earn on that day would make a real difference to the nurses among whom the money will be redistributed. Almost every email I've received from nurses since launching the campaign includes the words "struggle" and "debt"; several echo the sentiment of a psychiatric nurse who's been 22 years in the NHS. It is "soul destroying" she wrote, "to think that I'm never going to achieve a decent pay scale".
Nurses are the lowest-paid public-sector professionals, earning a third less mid-career than a secondary school teacher. Despite the independent pay review's recommendation of a 2.5% rise, the government last week offered nurses a derisory 1.9%, below-inflation deal. In real terms, a pay cut.
It's not just that nurses are undervalued, but a shortage is looming - 14,000 within four years, according to figures leaked from the Department of Health. Instead of looking to train more nurses, training places have been cut by 10% this year. And in England and Wales (Scotland is getting its act together) nothing is being done to address the fact that up to 71% of newly qualified nurses have not been able to get a job - the result of job cuts and freezes.
Any shortage will endanger us all. The lower the nurse-to-patient ratio, the greater the risk to patients. But when the government wakes up to the crisis and calls for more nurses, where does it think it will get them from? Not here. The nurses stacking shelves and serving hamburgers will probably have reached management positions by then. Nor from Australia or America, where our newly qualifieds are racing off to. My bet is that come the public outcry in 2011, we will renege on our promise not to poach nurses from the world's poorest countries. Look out the 17 sub-Saharan African countries with fewer than 50 nurses per 100,000 people: we're bound to be after your nurses when our supply runs out.
So yes, this is an unusual way to shine the spotlight on our nurses' plight. And yes, the way is celebrity led. It's a reality of our times that celebrities don't just sell more cans of Coke or packets of Walkers crisps, they also influence what it is the public and politicians prioritise. Of course footballers can't single-handedly solve the crisis in British nursing. The responsibility to fix it ultimately has to be that of our elected representatives. But they can lead the way.
Those who have come on board so far see it as a privilege and are keen to use their profiles and fan bases to inspire change. Remember nurses are not an alien constituency to footballers. Almost every player will have experienced their kindness over recent months.
There's still a mountain to climb, and more than 500 players to convince. So if the campaign is going to come off by May 13, I'll need your help. Click on the campaign website and register what team you support. At the moment Arsenal are sixth in the fan's league table, and West Ham are in the lead. But now that Thierry's on board perhaps all that will change. I'm learning fast that the story will not end until the final whistle blows. Noreena Hertz is a campaigner and distinguished fellow of Cambridge University's Judge Business School.
