Curzon Ashton backing campaign to beat suicide

Curzon Ashton kicked off in a special strip for today’s National League North clash with Brackley Town to support the 2019 World Suicide Prevention Day campaign.
The Nash are aiming to raise awareness of suicide and focus national attention on the terrible toll it takes after the sister of manager Mark Bradshaw lost her own son Robert four years ago at the age of 35.
To help promote Saturday’s efforts, the club have been releasing video interviews with Bradshaw and his sister on their family’s tragedy each day since the start of the week. The duo also featured on Tameside Radio on Monday to launch the initiative. Today’s shirts will also be auctioned off with the funds donated to the club’s own foundation and the World Suicide Prevention Day campaign.
A club spokesperson said: “This week we want to raise awareness of the subject of suicide and are trying to bring national attention to our campaign. We at Curzon Ashton believe that football can be used to help people in a variety of ways and can be a great preventative tool as well.
“We are running out in a different coloured strip for Brackley, the colour of World Suicide Prevention Day’s main ‘ribbon’ logo. This idea stemmed from the fantastic campaign Altrincham had last year to highlight LGBTQ equality and the national recognition they achieved.
“We hope that by wearing a different strip and sending these messages out that we will encourage other [larger] clubs to take a stance on this issue.”
Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people aged 20-34 with men around three times as likely to take their own lives as women. In 2017, nearly 6000 suicides occurred in the UK – that’s one death by suicide every 2 hours – and sadly the shocking statistics have seen a significant increase since then.
The spokeperson added: “There is also the possibility that someone at the game may be feeling depressed or suicidal and there will be information within the matchday programme that will assist with this.
“Our partners, Infinity Initiatives, are on board to assist in any way with free counselling and advice.  Samaritans have already sent the club lots of resources to hand out at the match  too and to have within the matchday programme.”