One of the ideas we’ve had is to do surprises for people who attend the MHFC sessions.
Whether it be a signed shirt, tickets to a football match, a stadium tour, some new trainers, a voucher or anything else we can think of.
We hope this creates even more happiness and positivity mentally not only for the person receiving the surprise but also for other people who attend our sessions and people reading about it on social media.
Our first surprise went to Ethan, who’s a very passionate Doncaster Rovers supporter that attends all home games.
I was able to surprise him with a signed Rovers shirt from the full squad.
You can read below from his Mum how the MHFC sessions have helped him…..
“Ethan wanted to come along to the football session as football is one of the only things he really enjoys, Ethan suffers from severe anxiety, and has learning difficulties and mental health problems but as a family we know that football is Ethan’s safe space.
So when my daughter saw that Andy had shared about the group we let Ethan know but at first he wasn’t to sure as he lacks in confidence and doesn’t like speaking about his feelings, so we explained to him it’s more to get him out the house and forget about everything for a little while when he’s playing.
We have noticed a huge difference in Ethan when he comes home from the games, I’m not gonna lie and say it’s changed him altogether because it hasn’t, but he comes home and tells us all about the game he has just played and says how lovely everyone there is and he always returns home with a huge smile on his face too.
It even motivates him to get out of bed on a Saturday morning which we never thought could happen.
We notice more of an improvement each week, yes it may only be a small improvement but if he carries on coming to these sessions it could most definitely change him as a person and how he sees certain things in life and hopefully he could make life long friends from it that he will always have there to speak to when he’s feeling low and anxious.
Well I don’t know how much of you know Ethan that well as we know he struggles a lot talking and communicating with people but Doncaster Rovers and just football as a whole is Ethan’s lifeline.
It’s 90 minutes of the week where Ethan can just go forget about whatever is going on in his mind and enjoy everything that’s happening there, it’s like his second home Doncaster Rovers and we know how emotional Ethan is so this surprise will be absolutely amazing for him, honestly he will be so grateful.
I think just as a family we want to that everyone at these sessions and the people that created them as it honestly does make Ethan so happy when he returns home and if it does that to Ethan hopefully everyone else that goes returns back home with a smile on there face knowing that people do care and do want to listen so just a huge thank you to you all.”
I’ve added some photos of Ethan receiving the surprise.
I hope to collaborate with more brands, teams, players etc so we can do as many of these as we can and for as many people as we can.
If anyone or companies would like to support, donate to or sponsor MHFC please get in touch at hello@mentalhealthfc.org
