Lady footballers give up mobile phones and raise €10,000

There are times when the Galway ladies footballers leave their talking on the pitch but on this occasion they decided to go silent in aid of a North Galway charity.

It is almost three years since Pieta House was established in Tuam and so far more than 800 people have benefited from their suicide prevention services.

But the Galway ladies footballers embarked on a rather unusual step to raise funds for the charity which is fully dependent on voluntary donations . . . the girls just stopped talking.

The ladies footballers love a good ‘natter’ to each other but recently they gave it a break and in doing so they raised an incredible amount of money and last week they visited Pieta House West in Tuam for a cheque presentation with the proceeds of their Talk for Pieta fundraiser.

It was the brainchild of team captain Edel Concannon and her teammates and the plan was to give up using their smart phones for the entire month of June in order to highlight the links between the over-use of social media and depression.

They set themselves a target of €10,000, but they exceeded this by raising a hugely impressive €10,365 – funds that will go directly to keeping Pieta House’s counselling services free to those suffering from suicidal tendencies and those who engage in self-harm.

“You can’t put a price on our health. It’s our most important asset,” says Deirdre Brennan of the Galway team. “Mental health unfortunately still has a stigma around it, particularly in Ireland.

“So we wanted to raise awareness and let people know that it’s okay to not be okay. I’d advise young people to spend less time scrolling on their phone and to spend more time communicating with people directly. And of course the idea with this was to raise money for Pieta House, which is a great charity”.

The girls weren’t cut off from society completely, however, as they were still allowed to use old-school text and call-only mobiles for the month of June.