Football 4 Charities event to help and support the Will Garvey Trust Foundation
Matt Gough used to swim with Will at Ilkeston Swimming Club, many moons ago, and organizing a fundraiser has something he’s wanted to do since Will died. We had started making plans but then along came a national pandemic and everything was put on hold.
Matt plays for Football 4 Charities, a local charity that arranges football matches to help organisations like ours raise money and awareness for our causes. They also provide SEND friendly sessions through their junior team ‘F4C Pups’.
The Will Garvey Cup was eventually played for on Sunday 19th June, Father’s Day. It would also have been Will’s 27th birthday so it seemed absolutely appropriate to be watching a football match – he’d have loved it. He’d have loved it even more given that some Forest greats – including Eugen Bopp, Jamie Ward, and Jason Lee – turned up to support too.
Around 250 people turned up at Ilkeston Town FC’s New Manor Ground and enjoyed some great football. There was a raffle too and we raised a massive £1363 in donations and sponsorship.
We welcome any opportunity to talk to people about why talking fixes, and how having a conversation can sometimes be a life saver, and this is what makes events like this so important. We still need to be braver. We still need to challenge the stigma. And we still need to recognize that suicide doesn’t just happen to other people – it does happen to people like us. Send a text, invite a mate out, pop in and catch up with someone you’ve not seen in a while. Every little helps.
Thanks to everyone who joined us, and supported us, we really do appreciate it. Thanks to Sue Severn and Matt Gough especially for organisng!
