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How football helps fathers manage the loss of their children

When the Angels United enters the field to give a match football looks like another amateur team whose players want to have fun for 90 minutes. However, it is quickly realized that this club from England is something more.

On the back of the fancy pink and blue jersey that the football players wear are written the names of their children who have lost. The 14 key members of the team have been together for a year and have been united through a mourning management team. In total, in one year the group acquired 30 players. The team has now evolved into family, “Tied” to each other by her love for football, but also their desire to remember their children. They compete once a month.

One of the co-founders of the city-based group Mosley, in the wider Manchester, The All Monk, he told the English newspaper «The Sun» how football helped him smile for the first time after the funeral of his twin girls Dotty and Poppy. Because of the rare syndrome «TTTS», was stillborn. When he shared his experience through social media, even professional footballers contacted him. “It all made me realize that you can use something minor like football as a great tool to help other people,” he said.

From this effort Monk and others were inspired by the 30-year-old Jake Pug. He had to leave home for a year after the loss of his three-year-old daughter Lily – May from lung cancer in July 2020. “I was depressed and as a year was approaching from her death I told myself that I had to do something to get up. “Football has always been a part of my life and when I saw them playing with the names of their children on my back, I said that this is what I want to do, to wear the name of Lily – May on my back”, he stressed.

“When you have a hard time, it’s nice to know that you have the phones of 29 other people who know how you feel and you can turn to them for help,” he said. Monk. “It means a lot to me to have these people near me,” the 41-year-old admitted Jimmy Riley.

THE Angels United follows the example of the charity Sands (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society) which for years has developed football teams in various cities of England. A few days ago the Angels United and the Sands of Stockport played in matches in memory of their children.

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