Brother of Aleisha Whamond who died raises money for charity in honour of her

Ryan Whamond has set up a grassroots football club in honour of their sister Aleisha, who sadly passed away due to a mental health condition at the age of 18.

The football club based in Stretford is called the Aleisha Whamond Football Club (AWFC) and is set up to raise money for those with mental health issues through charity football games. Ryan said, “Mental health is a huge part of my life and is the main focus for the club but also to become a community club with youth teams, girls’ teams, and for this club to be going strong in 50 years.”

Ryan says, “The club is to be entering a league with Manchester FA for the new season.” He has also mentioned to us that the club has some big-name ambassadors supporting it due to its charity work.

With mental health services broken and sadly, the current Labour Government seemingly giving little thought to the seriousness of the situation facing many very unwell people because they have little in the way of help and, even worse, no one to stick up for them in advocacy anymore, things will only get worse.

Having Ryan and his team raising money for charity could also fund an advocacy service that will advocate for clients with every issue, not just a couple of things like Advocacy Focus allegedly helped with.

During the pandemic and the now proven ‘needless’ lockdowns, many people sadly couldn’t deal with things anymore and committed suicide. We got information from a reliable source during 2021 that a person from mental health services told him that “Here in Trafford, suicide is off the scale with the majority of those dying being men between the ages of 18 to 25,” although younger people also commit suicide.

Whilst we don’t blame anyone for these tragic events, having a reliable, fully working mental health service and an advocacy service will help eliminate suicides and improve outcomes for many unwell people in our borough. Sometimes, though, people who commit suicide are not known to services; in those cases, it’s even more of a tragedy.

If you or anyone you know is feeling suicidal or just needing a caring and private chat with a specialist worker, contact the Samaritans at 116 123 FREE! any time of day. It is completely in confidence, and they are happy to talk about anything that is bothering you.

Trafford has nighttime support, which is run by Blu Sci in Old Trafford. You will need to text a mobile number and book a ‘Meet and Greet’ beforehand; you can find out more about this great service by clicking here: https://bluesci.org.uk/crisis-cafe/

Despite services being broken, it does not mean there is nothing. Other services like Blu Sci are doing amazing work in Trafford and even have trained people you can talk with during the day and in confidence, but you will need to book an appointment and may need to wait. They also have financial/benefits help.