Shots! TV documentary: Man runs to every Premier League stadium for suicide prevention charity

Matthew Smith of the If U Care Share Foundation took on the epic challenge of running to 20 different Premier League stadiums to raise money for suicide prevention. The cause is close to Matthew’s heart, having lost his older brother Dan in 2005 to suicide.

He said: “Dan was never a person that you would expect to make the decision that he did. He was 19, he was popular, loved football, massive Newcastle United fan, and still 19 years on, we don’t know why he made that decision.”

Watch Matthew's Journey on demand

Suicide in the North East

Matthew explained that after the tragedy of losing his big brother, he and his parents discovered that they were not alone. Many more families like them were living with the grief of loosing a loved one to suicide.

“Within the North East, we’ve had some of the highest rates (of suicide) for a number of years now. We decided we wanted to do something to try and stop others going through what we went through.”

If You Care Share campaign

Matthew, his younger brother Ben and his cousin came up with the campaign name If U Care Share when they were just 10, 5 and 12 years old, shortly after losing Dan.

Matthew’s mum said: “They came up with that campaign name. And that, in itself, was remarkable. As parents, all we could do was put one foot in front of the other, and here were these three kids, who just didn’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

The idea behind If You Care Share is that if you care about your friends and your family, you should share how you feel. At the start, they made tokens with the slogan and only planned to give them to Dan’s friends. But they soon realised that they could make an even bigger impact by using the campaign to raise money for charity.

Football and suicide prevention

Matthew said: “ We wanted to target young men in the North East. What better way to do that than football?” They began by selling wristbands on football grounds and managed to raise £50,000 for the charity Samaritans.

Their success on the football grounds propelled them into becoming their own charity, working across the country to prevent suicide. The organisation trains people on how to intervene when someone might be suicidal and supports those who have been affected by suicide. If you want to support the cause, there’s still time to donate here.

Matthew was not a runner when he took on the challenge of running to every Premier League stadium, which makes his journey even more remarkable. In the episode, we follow Matthew across the country and explore how football can be used to bring people together and help us have difficult, but important conversations around mental health.

If you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts or you’ve been affected by suicide, you can reach out to If You Care Share for support, during their office hours of 9am-5pm on 0191 387 5661. You can also contact Samaritans for free on 116 123, open 24 hours a day.

You can find more documentaries on Shots! TV or Freeview channel 262 and Freely channel 565.