“It’s not about getting our names out there, or getting famous, or getting more members. It’s about men’s health.”
Kenzie Foster, the president of Napier’s boxing club, has one goal this Movember: raise as much money for men’s health, both mental and physical, as possible.
Helping him are members of the club, which he started himself last year, including club secretary Euan and member Jason. ENRG Sport writer Donald Thomson spoke to the three of them about why Movember is so important, and their own experiences battling mental and physical health issues.
“We’re doing it for folk that are too scared to speak or have the lost the chance to. It’s such a massive, massive thing, and people don’t really pay heed to it. You lose 60 men an hour [to suicide]. I don’t understand it. It’s nuts.”
The International Association for Suicide Prevention estimate that over 700,000 people die by suicide each year, with men twice as likely to do so than women. When breaking down the figures, that equates to roughly one man dying by suicide every minute of every day, all year round.
Kenzie sees their campaign as a way of making people around them comfortable to express their emotions and concerns, and that problems aren’t always visible from the outside.
“There’ll be people in our club that we don’t know about that struggle with mental health, but doing this, they’re going to feel that support. It’s like we’re embracing them and we’re going to help them out and slowly move towards making it more inclusive and more personable for that person to feel a bit better about themselves.”
Euan stressed the importance of community on mental health, and was quick to emphasise that it doesn’t have to be boxing, but anything that gets you out of the house.
“It’s not even just about boxing as such, but going to a club. I was a season ticket holder at Ibrox, and every single week I was looking forward to going. You escape that reality for two hours, just getting away and doing something.”
Jason received a testicular cancer diagnosis at just 16 years old. Within 3 days, he had surgery to remove it. However, the mental effects lasted far longer. He did not have a club or community around him, and if it wasn’t for a nurse checking in on him, those effects may have gone unchecked.
“At the time I didn’t really have much mental health support because there weren’t any clubs or anything.
“You think ‘Oh, it’s all done physically, I must be fine up here as well.’ That’s really not the case. 2 weeks after the surgery, I had an appointment with a nurse, and she just said ‘are you okay?’ […] Just the delivery of how she said it, I completely broke down. I did not know how to deal with that question at the time.
Euan echoed Jason, believing that it is not about asking somebody if they are okay, but how you ask them. He moved to Edinburgh from Ayrshire last year and immediately felt pangs of homesickness after he left his support network back home. Thankfully, he managed to create a new one.
“If they say it in the right way, that’s when you just break down and everything gets let out, but you feel so much better after it. If my face is tripping me, if I’m not smiling, and I get that arm around me, that’s when it just hits and everything goes out.
“In student accommodation, I’ve had my arm around people, I’ve had people put their arm around me, and it’s just made a massive, massive difference to my life.
“I couldn’t just walk downstairs and go and get a cup of coffee and sit and speak to my dad, speak to my mum […] but then Kenzie moved in, I started the boxing.”
Kenzie, who has worked in two Rosette kitchens, had an experience at work that completely changed his perspective on opening up to people; a manager, who he did not see eye-to-eye with pulled him aside to check in on him, and it made him realise that no matter your differences, people care about your wellbeing and more importantly, your life.
“I went in one day feeling really, really awful, like worse than normal. I got into the kitchen and my manager looked at me and went ‘you alright?’ I turned my back and I pretended to clean something, and she came and looked me in the eyes and she was like ‘are you alright?’ I just burst out crying.
“She sat me down, she gave me numbers and support options, and gave me the day off to take care of myself. I hated her and she hated me, but there’s a big difference between not liking someone and not caring about their life, and she cared about mine.”
It is all these experiences that have encouraged the lads to raise money for Movember this year. Their aim is to raise £1000, and they are already well on their way to the goal. They will be running 2 kilometres every day, with the aim to do a 10k at the end of the month, while also growing out their moustaches.
Movember state that the funds raised “go towards supporting innovative world-class men’s health projects in our key focus areas – mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.”
Kenzie has experienced first-hand what a lack of funding to areas like this can do after he was put on hold for 6 hours by a mental health hotline, and while he is doing much better now, he is also grateful that his situation at the time was not worse.
“There was a time where I phoned a hotline about mental health and I got put on hold for 6 hours. And if you think how many lives get taken worldwide in an hour, think about 6 hours? Think about what could happen to me in that 6 hours. But there’s not enough funding.”
Like many others, I have also experienced issues with my mental health, and can often feel anxious or isolated, and it is stories like these that remind me it is okay to speak to people and look for help.
That is the main aim of these three young men, who reiterated that this is not just for their club, but for all.
“We’re doing it for everyone, it’s not about boxing, it’s about mental health. We’re doing it for men’s health. We’re doing it for everyone that has it, had it, lost to it. It’s just, it’s not for boxing.”
You can donate to the boxing club, and find all other details, on the Napier boxing club Instagram page, or at the following link. https://uk.movember.com/team/2510801?mc=63
As the winter closes in, the days get shorter, and the stress of university piles up, it is important to remember that it is okay to not be okay. A simple conversation with a friend over a pint, or a quick phone call home can be all it takes to ease the pressure. There is always help, and you are not alone, as Kenzie, Jason, and Euan have shown.
If you, or someone you know has experienced any of the topics mentioned in this article. Please reach out to somebody trusted or use the links below.
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/where-to-get-urgent-help-for-mental-health
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/testicular-cancer
