Within the last 10 years, Isca HC has lost two club members and two hockey friends of the club to suicide. All four of these young men were teammates and close friends. The loss of these friends left us devastated and confused. Each one left a big hole at our club and our memories of them remain in our thoughts. As a result, we have always made extra efforts to support one another on and off the pitch. We need to make sure this never happens to any of our members and teammates ever again. Which is why we are always looking to continue building the support network within the club alongside playing hockey. 

 

 

 

Since we discovered MIND charity our men’s section have been heavily involved in raising sponsorship for this great cause. Last year Liam Wakefield ran the London marathon and raised over £4K. Back in 2016 Thomas Whitworth, Simon Tremlett & Sam Lynch raised over £5K when they ran the Edinburgh marathon. Other Isca HC members have also raised large sums of money for MIND in recent times.

 

Over the last three seasons on the men’s side of the club, we’ve printed the MIND logo on all of our home and away playing shirts. We allocated a percentage of each shirt sale to formulate a donation to MIND. To date we have raised £650 through men’s shirt sales. Due to licencing laws, regrettably MIND have asked us not to use their logo on the new kit.

 

Back in 2016 some of our senior men started the initiative ‘Mind Your Head’ with the goal of breaking down the stigma around mental health and to raise awareness about how common it is among young men & women. We are not professionally trained in dealing with mental health but try to do our bit to help others in need. It’s ok to not be ok, we all go through tough times so let’s get through them together. No-one should suffer alone with mental health problems. So, moving forward, we want to make the statement and take the approach from the club as a whole, that we are committed to do our bit to build a support network across all areas of the club.

 

With this in mind, we’ve worked with our new kit supplier Y1 to incorporate a new personalised design on the sleeve of all playing shirts. We’ve decided to display the ‘Mind Your Head’ slogan and logo on our shirts to remind us of our recent history every time we pull on the Isca jersey. To remember the friends we’ve lost and to remind us that we all have the responsibility to support our fellow teammates, friends, family members and the wider hockey family.

 

Isca HC 01/09/2020