The following text is from our commercial partner "Club Champions" who are working with Welwyn RFC and Herts Rugby to help identify potential sponsorship opportunities.

"Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45. Mental health, the unspoken pandemic.
According to the mental health charity CALM, a shocking 76% of suicides are men whilst 54% of teenage boys who had experienced mental health problems said they simply ‘put a brave face on it’ rather than seeking help (Lancaster University, The Looking Glass). As organisations that work in community sport, we have un-parallelled access to these men and teens but too often the stigma surrounding mental health prevents us from talking about it.
This, however, is changing. Many clubs are organising outreach programmes to provide support for their members. One of the programmes we wish to highlight is from our Club Champions members, Welwyn Rugby Club.
Welwyn founded JOCA, ‘just one click away’, back in June 2016 and the need for a service like this is growing daily. JOCA has volunteers that provide counselling to the recipient at no cost and within hours of the person asking for support. As they say ‘no cost, no questions asked, no barrier to access and no waiting list’ an incredible solution to a severely underfunded problem.
According to Welwyn’s most recent update ‘’In four years JOCA has supported 115 people – not all of whom have been at the point of the extreme but all of whom have made the very difficult but extremely brave decision to reach out to ask for help.’’
They are now urging other clubs in Hertfordshire to join JOCA or create their own equivalent service.
We support Welwyn and encourage all sports clubs to create something similar. Sports like rugby have a reputation for being macho and insensitive, but we know that this is not the truth, lets change the stereotype and help save more young people in crisis.
‘Just one click away’"

You can help support JOCA by voting in Ashton's "For Life's Great Causes" annual charity support initiative with upto £10K being given away by Ashtons. You can vote for JOCA at the following link:
https://www.ashtons.co.uk/charity-vote