SANDS UTD

News Letter

In Northern Ireland six groups of men from across the province, all of whom have experienced baby loss, have formed football groups as a way of helping deal with their grief.

Transcript

00:00Sands United FC is for bereaved dads, but not solely dads, uncles, granddads, bereaved

00:16men affected by the loss of a baby. They meet once a week and they basically kick a ball

00:23around. Your ability isn't taken into consideration, you don't have to be a fantastic footballer,

00:31you just have to turn up and kick football with other bereaved dads.

00:37Currently we have six active teams. We have Belfast, Antrim, Craigavon, Inniskillen, London

00:49and Derry, Derry and Lang. The six teams will play each other in friendly matches to raise

00:56funds not only for Sands but for other local worthy causes. They'll play other charity

01:02matches against other teams.

01:06We're Sands ABC, Sands United ABC. The philosophy is just to get men out with other men that

01:12are in a similar situation. They're bereaved fathers or they're family of a bereaved father,

01:19they may be a brother of a bereaved father, an uncle that has lost his nephew or niece

01:24or a brother or sister of someone that has lost a child. It's just to give those guys

01:29an outlet, somewhere to go. But don't necessarily talk about bereavement. If you want to you

01:34can, there's always an ear to listen, there's always somebody that's willing to speak to

01:38you but not everybody wants to talk about their story. But this is, if you want to,

01:43there's always somebody here that'll listen. But it's more about getting out and getting

01:45lads laughing and giving them something to do for an hour a week and that's it.

01:52There's a lot of bereaved men about and there's similar people out there, people that have

01:57the same, in the exact same position. It may be a different story but it's the same feeling.

02:04You've lost your child, it doesn't matter if it was early term, late term, if the child

02:10was born and with people that have been through every type of bereavement here and we're all

02:16here for the same reason. You don't even have to have played football, our doors open to

02:23anybody, anybody at all. No experience required, just if you fancy getting into a bit of football,

02:28you've lost a child, this is the place to come to.

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