We’re fortunate to have been supported by both our local clubs – and their Community Foundations - some fantastic supporters’ groups such as Quidagoal (donating £1 to charity every time Wednesday score) and Adam Oxley, who hosts Radio Sheffield's popular Football Heaven.

Several mental health-related themes have come out of these conversations: how playing / supporting a team has helped with anxiety or depression, how having to stop playing has negatively impacted on someone’s mental health, how anxiety has stopped someone attending matches and tragically, how some footballers (high profile and grass roots ) have taken their own lives.

From talking about an issue which you wouldn’t necessarily think had connections to mental health, we’ve found that there are lots of ways in which football and mental health issues connect. Which, when you think about it, it isn’t that surprising - because football fans and football players are just ‘people’.

So we’ve started this forum, where people can put down their experiences and talk about the game that many of us love. As it grows, we also intend to include interesting interviews that we’ve come across and links to other articles etc.

If you’d like to talk about football and mental health, please email your article (no more than 500 words) to in[email protected]

We may need to edit your work, but we’ll send you a finished copy, for your approval, before putting it on the website.