My Hedkayse journey.....

Bizarrely it was only recently that I realised why I was drawn to working for Hedkayse and why I’m so passionate about what we do.

In 2006 I was coaching an U17 team at the school in which I taught when our captain stayed down after taking a knee to the head in a tackle.

Initially we weren’t that concerned, but an ambulance was called as a precaution. It had just set off when suddenly it stopped dead and my blood ran cold.

They said he had become non-responsive and they needed to get an air ambulance to get him to hospital quicker. I was incredibly shaken, told the ref the match needed to be abandoned and told the boys had only been called because it was too busy on the roads.

It was an away game, and I spent the return journey feeling incredibly emotional and when, that evening, I got a call to say he had suffered intracranial bleeding but had undergone surgery and was ok I fell to my knees sobbing in the street.

The whole experience drove home to me the immense responsibility I had as a coach to look after the health and welfare of the young men in my care.

At Hedkayse I know that I’m doing everything I can to make sure that we can make the game I love as safe as it can be. That motivates me every morning.