Tragedy sparks charity’s offer of free sessions
A West Lothian charity is running new sessions to mark suicide awareness month.
The latest data from National Records of Scotland show there were 23 suicides in West Lothian last year, up one on the previous year.
The Sport and Wellbeing Trust decided to act after the group were affected by a personal tragedy and are offering arts and crafts club, walking and talking sessions and football therapy.
They told The Courier they were delighted by the uptake from locals, with over 40 men attending the first sessions last week.
The charity, based in Fauldhouse and Longridge, already have 800 children registered for their football sessions.
The co-founders behind Sport and Wellbeing Trust, Colin and Carol Martin, have been working hard recently to establish the charity throughout West Lothian, alongside facilitators Colin Martin, Laura Hunter and Nicola Millar.
As well as the new sessions the charity have began to work with the local football club Stoneyburn Juniors.
They have recently organised trips for 40 youngsters from West Lothian to travel to England to watch the upcoming Manchester City v Crystal Palace fixture, and another 17 are going along to Scotland’s crucial World Cup match against Denmark.
The charity were also delighted to announce today that they have been awarded £10,000 by the national lottery.
A spokesperson said:“We are very proud to announce that The Sports and Wellbeing Trust has just received funding of £10,000 from the Community Fund to help our charity with the running costs.
“This would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the hard work behind the scenes.
“A huge thank you goes out to our trustees Laura and Roslyn, our facilitators Wull and Nicola, Carol our administrator, and our coaches James, Steven, David and Ben, who all volunteer their time Monday to Friday.”
The group plan to run another football camp in October after the success of their summer programme.
Free football therapy sessions are available every Wednesday for the next four weeks at the Fauldhouse Partnership Centre.
More details of the free sessions can be found on Sport and Wellbeing’s social media pages.