NHS Trust football league launch – press invitation

The South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust – which covers Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield – is setting up it’s own football league.

Around 8-10 teams made up of staff and patients from across the three areas will play in the league, which will be launched with a football tournament on Thursday 28th June at Dewsbury Sports Centre, 10:30am.

One of the organisers, Aboobaker Bhana, said, "We decided to set up a Trust football league based on Hackney FC – an award winning initiative set up by a London mental health trust. The idea is to encourage people with mental health problems to become active by doing something they enjoy, and lots of our service users enjoy football. Research has proven that exercise can have a positive effect on people’s mental health, so hopefully the football league will encourage more people to become active. To help people recover from mental illness we need to look at their overall health, both physical and mental, and the football league is a step towards this."

The tournament will be opened by Kirklees mayor Jean Calvert. Medals and trophies are being sponsored by Wakefield company Redrat Computer Fairs Ltd.

Kirklees Healthy Living Partnership will be on hand at the tournament to give out fresh fruit and tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle. There will also be a raffle to win tickets for Huddersfield Town FC.