Shawmind Updates

Cricket enthusiasts from across the county are being invited to bowl around the clock on Summer Solstice to raise funds for Farndon Cricket Club and leading mental health and wellbeing charity, Shawmind.

The Sunrise to Sunset Bat-a-thon has been organised by Martyn Hill (30) and is due to take place on Saturday 20^th June 2020 from sun up at 4:43am until the sun sets at 9:21pm.

The challenge will call on support from local amateur cricketers of all abilities who are missing the sport, to step up and bowl against Martyn in 20-minutes slots, while adhering to social distancing and hygiene guidelines.

Participants are asked to bring their own cricket balls and to make a donation of a minimum of £20 which will be split between Farndon Cricket Club and Shawmind.

Martyn, who is a Chance to Shine Schools Officer and Junior Outlaws coach at Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, has been a member of Farndon Cricket Club since he was 11 and has found solace in the game and its community during some difficult periods.

He said: “Cricket is a big part of my life; when I’m not promoting cricket in schools for Chance to Shine, I’m on the field coaching our junior team or playing for Farndon 1st team in the South Nottinghamshire Cricket League.

“Before the pandemic forced us all into lockdown, I was looking forward to this summer season where an afternoon playing on the field with my mates usually helps ease away any stresses and anxieties and reinvigorates me

“In the past I have struggled with my mental health and alongside support from family and friends, cricket has always been a major part of my recovery; it’s my happy place and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.”

Martyn has set aside four one-hour sessions (8:53am, 11:58am, 2:38pm and 5:43pm) exclusively for Farndon’s junior members, which includes the club’s county age group representatives.

He added: “We have a really successful junior programme at Farndon, so I want to allow those youngsters with a real passion for the sport to be able to showcase their abilities during the challenge.”

Peter Wingrove, Operations Director at Shawmind, said: “We are delighted that Martyn is fundraising for us in addition to his beloved cricket club. Team activities, particularly sports, are a great way for people to support one another when it comes to mental health and wellbeing.

“We know that guys traditionally find it difficult to open up and talk about their feelings, so we’re pleased to see how comfortable Martyn is about talking things though with his teammates, he sets a great example.”

Newark-based Shawmind, a charity which supports those experiencing mental ill health, has adapted its weekly community outreach programme – which usually includes a men-only ManCave group, into an online, telephone, text and email support service during lockdown.

The charity has received more and more calls for support as the lockdown has continued and expects call numbers to increase even as the guidelines ease over the coming weeks and months.

Anyone wishing to take part in the Sunrise to Sunset Bat-a-thon needs to make a minimum £20 donation here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/sunrise-to-sunset-batathon

To secure their 20-minute bowling slot participants are asked to email william_feehily@hotmail.co.uk. Slots are booked on a first come first served basis.

Donations are also welcome from those who want to support the causes but who don’t want to take part.

Anyone wanting to see how the challenge goes can view updates on Facebook via the event page Sunrise to Sunset Batathon or Shawmind’s Facebook page.

As coronavirus arrived on our shores, we were celebrating a month of successful fundraising activities that included our Sock it to Stigma campaign which raised almost £1,000 in one day – thanks in part to the London Sock Company, who donated a £1 for every mention of our hashtag and a percentage of the sales of their socks on the day.

Since we went into lockdown at the end of March we have made some significant changes to our services. Now, the people who regularly visited our Breathe Café, ManCave and Breathe Pop-ups can access our support and signposting through our regular call, text and email service run by our volunteers. We also have a dedicated “Breathe – In It Together” Facebook group with more than 500 active members, so if you’re looking for some human interaction under lockdown, or even after lockdown, that’s the place to be. 

We believe that everyone should have access to mental health resources when they need them.

To help achieve this and break the stigma of mental ill health for good, we recently launched a series of online interactive mental health and wellbeing training courses with our professional partners, Samantha Kendall, Ann Russell and Tana Macpherson-Smith.

The courses are aimed at everyone from individuals, parents, teachers and children to employees, HR teams and line-managers, and will equip attendees with a better understanding of a range of mental health disorders, how to spot the signs and how to access or provide basic support for themselves or others.

We’ve been inundated with enquiries and have started to book our first few sessions, but during Mental Health Awareness Week (18^th-24^th May) 2020, we’re going to put our money where our mouth is and give one lucky person access to the Basics of Mental Health Support course (worth £100) for free.

All you need to do to enter is book and pay for your place on any of our other courses between 9am Monday 18^th May and 5pm on Sunday 24^th May 2020. 

Anyone who books on a course will be automatically entered into the draw. A name will be selected at random and announced on our social media channels on Friday 29^th May.

The four hour Basics of Mental Health Support course will be led by Samantha Kendall, Director of SK First Aid Training. Samantha is a highly qualified front-line emergency ambulance medic with seven years’ experience dealing with 999 emergency incidents.

Samantha is a qualified Mental Health First Aid England tutor and her sessions are packed with first-hand experience and easy to follow guidelines for beginners and those needing refresher training.

Meanwhile the six hour Mindfulness course will be led by experienced mindfulness teacher, facilitator and coach, Ann Russell from Our Minds at Work, in a sensitive and yet lively and enlightening way which involves humour, stories and examples. There will be short videos, online white board activities and small group breakout sessions throughout. 

Ann is also delivering our Mindful Approach to Personal Resilience Programme, which follows on from the Mindfulness course.

And finally, Tana Macpherson-Smith, Founder of ClearMinds Education Ltd, an organisation dedicated to enhancing the emotional and mental health and wellbeing of children and teenagers will lead on our parent, teacher and child sessions.

Tana, a mental health trainer; Child, Adolescent and Parent Coach and NLP Practitioner; a Psy-Tap Practitioner; holistic therapist; motivational speaker and former teacher, will take the lead in our introductory one-hour Mental Health and Wellbeing Workshop for Parents of Teenagers and Mental Health and Wellbeing Workshop for Parents of Younger Children.

She will also run our survival guide for parents (of 0-12year olds) and teenagers and specialist Monkey Wisdom: From Fearful to Fabulous (for teenage girls) and Monkey Wisdom: From Fearful to Fearsome (for teenage boys), all of which call for an hour of participation over six weeks.

All courses are split into 60-minute live online sessions to ensure everyone is able to participate.

To find out more about the courses and to secure your place visit www.shawmind.org/online-training/

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