Mental Health 

 

Mental Health is a massive issue especially in men. We as a club feel that we can help tackle mental health together. Therefore the committee continuously look at what we can do to help. These are just a few things that we have collaborated to try and implement this year to do our bit for the team and mental health:

 

• Encourage supportive conversations about mental health 

Wether this be in a social environment together as one team or within a small group. We are aiming to encourage conversations about mental health, the idea that one of your team mates should never suffer in silence. 

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• Organising and encouraging socials inclusive of all members 

Social Secretary William Rose is always looking for ways to encourage all of the members to come to socials. Ranging from the rainbow themed social at the start of the year to listening to students opinions about economic situations and build up of university work. This shows in the numbers going from 60% of the team attending weekly socials to 75%. And we are still looking for ways to improve this to get 100% at socials. Which we are on track for before Christmas. 

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• Include members in the club through injury periods 

We have had a number of injuries throughout the season so far even this early on. Chairman Peter Barclay-Quelch injured him self in a friendly match so immediately took up the coaching role from the start of October to Mid November. Other players have also helped in coaching roles Callum Fawcett (previous captain), Cameron Currie (First year) Andrew Abdi and Cody Doherty  has also helped out in the forwards through their injuries. 

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We pride ourselves on being a family and families should feel comfortable about talking about hard subjects like mental health. And we will continue to do our bit to help prevent mental health within our teams and hope our movements and success will also encourage other teams to do so. 

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Testicular Cancer 

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The next big issue we would like to discuss is Testicular Cancer

 

• There are around 2,300 new testicular cancer cases in the UK every year, that's more than 6 every day (2013-2015).

• In males in the UK, testicular cancer is the 17th most common cancer, with around 2,300 new cases in 2015

• Since the early 1990s, testicular cancer incidence rates have increased by more than a quarter (27%) in males in the UK

• Over the last decade, testicular cancer incidence rates have increased by a tenth (10%) in males in the UK

• Incidence rates for testicular cancer are projected to rise by 12% in the UK between 2014 and 2035, to 10 cases per 100,000 males by 2035

• There are around 60 testicular cancer deaths in the UK every year, that's around 1 every week (2014-2016).

 

How can you prevent this? 

For men over the age of 14, a monthly self-exam of the testicles is an effective way of becoming familiar with this area of the body which enables the detection of testicular cancer at an early stage.

Because the point of the self exam is not to find something wrong today. The point is to learn what everything feels like when things are normal, and to check back every month to make sure that nothing has changed.

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Oddballs is one of our favourite organisations to support. Many of our players have joined the movement to raise awareness of testicular cancer by wearing the boxers, hats and playing tops. We are also looking into getting special 15th Year anniversary Swimming speedos, Rugby polos and oddball hats. The original logo the committee tried to put forward in 2003 is the logo on the hat and tops.

Pictured below:

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If you are interested in any of these please contact 07849566905 (Peter Barclay-Quelch, Chairman) where we can sort this out. This is a working progress but we aim to get this out for the new year.