Good sport: Contribution made by the beautiful game in transforming mental health of participants in team

Football has been widely linked with preventing heart disease and diabetes.

But it is the beautiful game’s ability to transform people’s mental health which Grampian Strikers is most enthusiastic about.

Community psychiatric nurse Russell Brimklow formed the team in 2002 and since then it has fielded scores of players with conditions like schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder.

Mr Brimklow said: “Young guys newly diagnosed with schizophrenia and conditions like that can find themselves distanced from society, and not exercising or doing the things they used to.

“I thought there was no better way of engaging with these guys than to have a game of football.

“The exercise is healthy, it gives them a chance to forget their problems and they have a chance to talk about things afterwards and get to know each other.

“People have become physically fitter by stopping smoking and starting to manage their alcohol or drug use because they want to play football.”

Grampian Strikers was initially run by NHS Grampian and Aberdeenshire Council staff but the training sessions, at Aberdeen Sports Village, were taken over by Aberdeen FC Community Trust in 2013.

The sessions are open to people aged from 18-65, and the side competes in a national mental health league.

Mr Brimklow said that past players still turn out to support the team under the motto of “once a striker, always a striker”.