{"id":23720,"date":"2025-02-23T09:40:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T09:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/baby-loss-football-club-bonds-friends-for-life\/"},"modified":"2025-02-23T09:40:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T09:40:43","slug":"baby-loss-football-club-bonds-friends-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/baby-loss-football-club-bonds-friends-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby loss football club bonds ‘friends for life’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Dan Wareing<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Manchester<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AngelsAngels United<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The club trains every Tuesday night and is intended to be a place where fathers who have lost children can meet<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“Since we started this club nobody wants to be a part of, it’s grown bigger than we ever expected.”, said Olly Monk, co-founder of Angels United.<\/p>\n

The stillbirth of Olly’s daughters Poppy and Dotty back in 2020 helped spark a meeting of men from Manchester who were united not just by their love of football, but also the experience of losing a child.<\/p>\n

From that day on 25 October 2021, a WhatsApp chat of 13 fathers, which grew from an online Covid support group, has grown to more than 50 members.<\/p>\n

The club trains every Tuesday night at Wright Robinson College in Gorton and is intended to be a place where fathers who have lost children can meet to find support and share their experiences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The group then meets on Sundays to play matches in various locations – with the players each time wearing shirts with the names of their children printed across their backs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Olly said: “Even though in an ideal world you’d never want to be involved with this kind of thing I know I’ve got friends for life.<\/p>\n

“When you go you know people will be there to pick you up from the lowest of lows and help you climb back up.”<\/p>\n

The success of Angels United has culminated with memorial matches against the national baby loss group Sands United<\/a>, and recognition at the Manchester FA Grassroots football awards in 2024, presented by England and Manchester United player Ella Toone.<\/p>\n

And their progress on the field has now prompted a discussion of how they can be more effective helping people off it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AngelsAngels United<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Olly Monk (second from right) said football is used as “a tool to break the silence”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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On Sunday, Angels United players and their families will meet at Heaton Park for the first of the club’s new WalkNTalk sessions.<\/p>\n

The sessions are intended to expand the group beyond football and offer people the opportunity to meet for a walk and a supportive chat.<\/p>\n

“These sessions are designed to bring people together who have a shared experience of baby or child loss for whom football isn’t for them.” Olly said.<\/p>\n

Ed Growden, from Preston, Lancashire, joined the club back in June 2023 after his son Shay was stillborn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘This meant something’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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He said he got emotional after he completed his first session playing with the club.<\/p>\n

“The first session I went to I was crying my eyes out to my wife Kerry afterwards because this meant something – it was totally different,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And these WalkNTalk sessions will be nice for having a chat about what you’re going through even if it doesn’t involve football.<\/p>\n

“This support network isn’t there for if you need it, it’s for when you need it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"EdEd Growden<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ed Growden and his wife Kerry have been involved with Angels United since 2023<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ed continued: “When we play the games we’re playing for the names of our children on the back of our shirt.<\/p>\n

“My son Shay will never get to play the game of football, but every time I step on to the pitch I feel like I’m playing for him, with so much pride.”<\/p>\n

Olly added: “There’s no magic pill to make bereavement better, none.<\/p>\n

“But we want to help people to see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan Wareing BBC News, Manchester Angels United The club trains every Tuesday night and is intended to be a place where fathers who have lost children can meet “Since we started this club nobody wants to be a part of, it’s grown bigger than we ever expected.”, said Olly Monk, co-founder of Angels United. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1607,8617,2877,403,3085,283,1608],"class_list":["post-23720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","tag-baby","tag-bonds","tag-club","tag-football","tag-friends","tag-life","tag-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23722,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23720\/revisions\/23722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}