‘I am glad to still be here today, now I want to help out others...’
ANDREA LAMBROU
After attempting suicide last year an amateur footballer is tackling mental health head-on with a new active support group.
Time to Tackle is the brainchild of former EK Thistle and EKFC player Aaron Connolly.
Last summer the News told the harrowing story of how the 27-year-old dad nearly stepped in front of a train amid his ongoing battle with depression.
Aaron has a history of mental health issues and just months prior had spoken out in the hope of encouraging more young men and women to open up.
But just when it seemed like Aaron had turned a corner with his demons, he was just a step away from ending it all.
Now an ambassador for mental health charity Back Onside, Aaron has set up a new football-based support group with wife Siobhan.
The initiative, which runs at Glasgow Green on Wednesdays from 7-9pm, encourages people to go along for a kick-about and discuss their own personal struggles over a cuppa.
Aaron said: “I could have people come and play football for an hour and it will make a difference, but if you can come in the room and share your problems with people who might have had similar experiences, we can actually help put you on the right path.
“And if you’re in a really, really tough place we can signpost you to help and we can try and get something in place quicker for you.”
Aaron was on the cusp of taking his own life after going missing on a night out.
But hearing his three-yearold son’s voice brought him back from the precipice.
He spend two months recovering in hospital.
Aaron added: “That experience, as difficult as it was, has changed my life and that’s the message that I try and push all the time – I promise you hand on heart that it does get better.
“I took stock of the situation and decided that I couldn’t do this, it wasn’t fair on him.
“And at that point I decided I needed to keep myself safe. I can’t put into words how glad
I am to still be here today. I don’t understand how my son would have coped if his dad wasn’t here, because his daddy walked out in front of a train.”
In 2018, 784 people in Scotland took their own lives – an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year.
Three quarters of those who try to take their own life are men.
Remembering that horrific night, Siobhan said: “I got a message from him basically saying goodbye. Like I love you, I’m sorry. I was fully convinced he was gone.
“I believed that Ruairí’s dad wasn’t coming home.
“The police knocked on the door at one point and they hadn’t told me they were coming so my legs just gave way and I fell to the floor. It sounds so dramatic but it was, it was horrific.”
She added: “When Aaron brought up this idea, I thought it would be nice for people like him to come along and also people like me.
“So there might be family members who can come along and they can speak to me and I can understand how they’ve felt and might be able to show them that it gets better.
“To see the improvement in people from the first week to now, it’s really nice to know that we might have had something to do with that.”
If you come and share your problems we can actually help put you on the right path...