Mental health at the centre of family-friendly rugby event

Tough Enough to Play will bring three days of rugby and entertainment to Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club in Wall Heath from Friday, July 22 to Sunday, July 24.

The event, organised by mental health charity Tough Enough to Care (TETC), follows on from the inaugural event in 2021, which saw three matches over one day and a host of entertainment, street food and drink and saw hundreds of people attend.

TETC founder Stuart Bratt said the idea of the event was to showcase local and national mental health support.

He said: "It's all about showing to people what support there is available to offer and also get people talking about mental health as a way of bringing it to the forefront.

"It's also good for kids to see mental health being discussed at an event and have fun with the rugby, the fun fair and know that it's not just a mysterious and dark subject."

Mr Bratt said the event had expanded to three days after realising the scale of what had been put on in 2021.

He said: "It was a huge success, but we probably crammed too much into that day, so we decided to spread it out over three days.

"It'll give more time for people to enjoy things and give the referees and events team a breather during the event."

The Friday will see a game between TETC Socials and Dudley Kingswinford Socials, then a men's and a women's match on the Saturday, before Flaming Unicorns take on Redditch on the Sunday.

There will also be live entertainment each day and a range of drinks and street food available.

Mr Bratt said he wanted to see as many people come down as possible to enjoy the event and have some fun while also being aware of the topic of the event.

He said: "We're trying to make as much noise as possible about mental health and backing it up with a family-friendly fun day centred around a serious objective of helping people."

To find out more and to buy tickets, go to facebook.com/events/dudley-kingswinford-rfc/tough-enough-to-play-2022/373929964325369/