On Sunday 27 August, Lift the Weight Football Club (LTWFC) celebrated their 1st-year anniversary with a friendly match against a Pukka Pies works team at Riverside Park, home of Barrow Town Football Club.
LTWFC are a community interest company (CIC) mental health charity football team, based in the East Midlands. The charity aims to break down the stigma associated with mental health and raise awareness of mental health issues. All of the team players have either suffered from, or supported someone with, mental health problems or work in mental health support services. Lift the Weight CIC support group was formed in 2020 with the football team being formed in August of that year. LTWFC play friendly games throughout the year with any funds raised being donated to mental health charities.
Matt Deacon, one of the founding members of Lift the Weight contacted Barrow Town earlier in the summer looking for a club, based in the East Midlands, that could host occasional matches throughout the year. Matt explained about his own circumstances saying that in 2018 he started to struggle with mental health. “I was a shadow of my former self,” he said. “I felt lost, had no drive and even struggled to leave the house. Once I started being open with myself, it felt like a weight had been lifted”. He started working at Derby County Community Trust and, while there, saw the power that football can have on communities. After experiencing how successful other charity teams had been in creating impact, he decided that this was the way to go. His small idea has turned into something big and it's only getting bigger!
Barrow Town was only too happy to help, executive committee member Mike Coyne said, “We are pleased to be able to offer our facilities, free of charge, to such a worthwhile cause. Barrow Town provides the opportunity for local girls, boys, men and women to play football, but we are always looking for ways to make a wider positive contribution to the local community. In recent years we have worked with Mind UK to train our
coaches in mental health awareness and hosted a charity match in support of the YoungMinds charity. When Matt got in touch, we were very keen to help out and to continue to promote and support mental health awareness.”
On the day a high scoring game, played in a friendly and competitive way, saw Pukka Pies works team the eventual victors. A raffle was held, raising funds for the charity and Pukka Pies donated enough meat and veggie pies to feed all the players, supporters and volunteers, so at the end of the day everyone was a winner.
Judith Rodgers