Friday 21 July 2017

Footballers to scale heights for mental health charity

A SELFLESS football team are tackling the Yorkshire Three Peaks to raise money for a men’s mental health charity.  

A dozen members and supporters of Barnard Castle FC Sunday side will take on Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside this Sunday to raise fund for CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably).

Sponsorship will be split 75:25 in favour of the charity with the other quarter going to help improve facilities at the club and cover the cost of maintaining the pitch at Tensfield.

The group aim to complete the challenge in 12 hours.

Organiser and club manager Jimmy Raine said the CALM cause was important in the town at the moment.

He added: “It’s not just for ourselves – with what’s happened in the town recently we were looking for a small charity which was male orientated so we went for CALM.

“We have seen lots of families affected recently by events so we thought it was a good choice.”

Suicide is the biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the UK.

County Durham in particular has a higher rate of male suicide than the national average.

The Rural Services Network has also raised concerns about some rural occupations – including farming – having high suicide rates with those who develop mental illness in rural areas seem less likely to seek treatment compared to people in urban areas.

Mr Raine said CALM offered a voice on the end of the phone to talk to.

He added: “There is someone to talk to – someone who you don’t know. They man the phones every day so people can ring up and that’s what they need the money for.

“People don’t have to be embarrassed about it at all.”

It isn’t the first charity fundraiser the club has taken on.

A couple of years ago the squad hiked 42 miles across the Yorkshire Dales for Motor Neurone Disease Association and the year before that they raised money for the Great North Air Ambulance.

Mr Raine, 25, said the lads had done “no training whatsoever” for the three peaks challenge but was confident his new Ordnance Survey map would see the group through.

“It should be a proper route – we’ve got people who don’t play football who just wanted to be involved,” he added.

“We have had a good response so far with sheets going around workplaces like Smith’s, Glaxo and AKV.

“Everyone seems to have got behind it.”

The club will enter a new chapter this year as Barnard Castle FC Sunday XI will merge with Bowes FC for the 2017/18 season.

To donate to the squad’s Three Peaks challenge go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/barneyfcyorkshire3peaks.

A sponsorship sheet is also up on the noticeboard at Barnard Castle Cricket Club.

To find out more about the work of CALM, go to thecalm zone.net

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