Last year you may remember that we launched our relationship with the Charlie Waller Trust.

Charlie Waller Trust is a charity that provides mental health training and support, focusing on children and young people.

It is a charity very close to Mark Durden-Smith, a dear friend and supporter of Barnes RFC, because Charlie was his dear friend who took his own life aged 28 in 1997.

In September 2023, one of our players, Georg Buschner, also took his own life. Georg played for Barnes Occies, and he is still sorely missed by all who knew him.

So far, as a club, we have raised over £10,000 to support the charity and we have been working with the team at CWT to help us provide a framework at Barnes Rugby Club to provide support for our young people with their mental health issues, both proactively and as well as when they need it. We are focussing initially on coaching our rugby coaches at all levels on what to look for in our youngsters and to provide the signposts of where support can be found.

Our ultimate aim is to provide a safe haven for everyone in and around our club and we will continue to develop our support structure going forward.

You can find out more about CWT here: https://charliewaller.org