Powerful mental health campaign spearheaded by rugby legends hits home
Moving video 'We're all Wigan. We're all Warriors' marks the start of Mental Health Awareness week.
RUGBY legends have bravely opened up about their own 'greatest pain' as they try and encourage other men to speak up.
The top flight players from Wigan Warriors have talked about the domestic abuse they saw as a child, the racism they suffered and how they faced the heartbreak of bereavement.
They have released a moving video - called 'We're all Wigan. We're all Warriors' - to mark the start of Mental Health Awareness week.
The Rugby League World Champions said 'some feelings are too heavy to carry in silence…'
In the powerful video, winger Liam Marshall, 28, talks about the bereavement he felt after losing his mother Debbie just days after his daughter Elsie was born.
'It was the greatest pain and sadness that I have ever felt. In the space of three days we had experienced the highest high and the lowest low,' he said.
'The day my daughter was born was the happiest and most proud I have felt in my life. Less than 48 hours later, my mother sadly passed away after an 18-month battle with cancer. I had a reason to carry on when it could have been so easy to stop. '
Teammate Junior Nsemba, aged 20, spoke about childhood racist abuse he had suffered: 'I was so young, feeling so isolated and so confused as to why they were excluding me and treating me differently. Singled out simply because of the colour of my skin.'
But the towering prop, who was born in Wigan after his parents emigrated from Cameroon, added: 'I have always been proud of who I am and where I came from, nothing anyone can say can change that.'
The player's mum runs an orphanage in Cameroon's capital city of Yaounde and he has praised his teammates for helping 'massively'.
Prop forward, Tyler Dupree, 25, from Halifax told of the domestic violence he saw as a boy: 'I was a young boy, just trying to comprehend what was happening. I knew it was wrong. I knew he was wrong. I knew this wasn't how you treat a woman.
And Brad O'Neil, 22, from Leigh, who is a hooker for his team, told about the stress and nerves he had about becoming a father so young four years ago.
'Am I ready for this? How am I going to provide? I couldn't explain how I was feeling in that moment, apprehensive and nervous. Worried that I wouldn't be enough. I was 18-years-old and I was going to be a father. " But he added: I wouldn't change nothing for the world. I am a provider
The club said the video was a direct response to rising rates of male loneliness in and around Wigan.
According to a Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank, 15% of men have no close friends and no one to confide in, with only 1-in-5 men receiving emotional support from a friend per week, compared to 40% of women.
Suicide being the biggest cause of death among young men.'We're all Wigan. We're all Warriors.' reinforces that Wigan Warriors are your teammates on-and-off the pitch, with a shared commitment to support the growth and development of the next generation of men.
Professor Chris Brookes, Chairman: 'Wigan Warriors is deeply embedded in our community with our players seen as positive role models.
'I know from my many years working in our NHS how much men bottle up their feelings.
'These authentic accounts from our players will therefore be hugely impactful in breaking the stigmas which keep so many men from opening up on their true emotions.
'Rugby League has highly positive values, attitudes and behaviours with the sport such a powerful vehicle for kick starting conversations about mental health.
' I am so proud that our Club is leading the way in making a difference and providing a pathway to improve lives, particularly mental health and wellbeing.'
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