Through social media, I saw the sad news about Jamie-Leigh, her late husband and her family.
I knew straight away after reading more about what had happened, that I wanted to try and organise an MHFC Experience for Jamie-Leigh and her three kids.
With the help of Doncaster Rovers, we managed to organise for the family to watch a game in hospitality.
You can read more about Jamie-Leigh and her family’s story and the experience they had at the game here……
Jamie-Leigh – “Scott was just 35 years old when he sadly decided taking his life was the only option he had on 18th September 2025. 2 years to the date he was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. A terminal illness that kills the brain, takes away all your functions and is really a cruel disease.
Scott was always open with me that at some point he would take his own life, as he didn’t want to end his life being cared for 24 hours with no quality of life.
Although honest, I thought we still had some time together. He had declined rapidly in the last 6/12 months, with his symptoms troubling him.
We went on our yearly family holiday to Majorca on 16th September with Scott’s brother, his family and friends. Sadly on the 18th, he decided he would take his life. A decision I will never know why at that point he felt he needed to make, a decision that changed mine and my children’s lives forever.
It cost 5k to bring him home, and along with just short of another 7k to bury him, I wanted the children to have a place they can forever go and be with their dad. It’s a further 4k to get his headstone too.
Myself, I am 34 and a widow, we have a 15-year-old daughter, Lillie-Jai, 9 year 9-year-old son , Harrison and a 4-year-old daughter, Nancy. Our lives were shattered in that moment, they will never be the same again. We have all struggled to process the events and have had to adapt to a new life we weren’t yet ready for.
The children have done this in the most courageous way, and I will be forever proud of them, as will their dad.
Ryan from the mental health charity reached out and asked if it would be OK to organise something with Doncaster Rovers for us as a family, I agreed.
We were invited to the Doncaster Rovers vs Peterborough United match on the 29th November, we were given hospitality tickets, and we got to meet players after the match.
Just for those few short hours, my heart filled again, seeing the smiles on the children’s faces and how happy the experience made them, but it also felt heavy that we were only there because Scott was gone. He would have loved this experience, he’d only taken Harrison to his first football match recently, at the Rovers v Blackpool match. They both loved that day!
We were treated to a lovely 3-course meal, we were warm in the hospitality dining room before we watched the match from fab seats. It was cold and very wet, but that didn’t bother us as the children loved it.
After the match, we got to watch the man of the match be presented to Jordan Gibson before meeting a number of players, the children got pictures with them and their autographs.
The highlight for Nancy was meeting Donny Dog and having her picture taken with him.
I will be forever grateful for all the kindness that has been shown not only to Scott but to both me and the children since his passing.
A massive thank you to Ryan for arranging such an amazing day, and all the team at the Rovers for a fab day.
We made memories the children will not forget.”
HUGE thank you to the Doncaster Rovers team from me, MHFC and the Doncaster community for enabling this experience to happen.
Below you can see some photos of the day…..
‘MHFC EXPERIENCES’ and ‘MHFC SURPRISES’ are something we hope to do more of in the future, it could be tickets to a game, hospitality, meet and greet, signed merch, stadium tour, or anything else we could sort for the MHFC community members or anyone else we hear about.
The more we can do for people, the better and give as many different people as many different opportunities and experiences as possible to give them a mental boost 🤞🙏
Maybe something they’ve never been able to attend before, but we can give them that opportunity 💚
‼️If anyone has any links or contacts to people at sports clubs that could help us provide these experiences, please get in touch 😊
You can read about previous MHFC Experiences here https://www.mentalhealthfc.org/category/mhfc-experiences/
You can read about previous MHFC Surprises here https://www.mentalhealthfc.org/category/mhfc-surprises/
If anyone or companies would like to support, donate to or sponsor MHFC please get in touch at hello@mentalhealthfc.org
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