Omar Beckles discuses the importance of mental health in the lead up to Town's Mind fixture.
Shrewsbury Town take on Burton Albion tomorrow afternoon in Town’s EFL Mind fixture.
Mind partnered up with the EFL as their Official Charity Partner to bring a wider awareness of mental health issues to the football community.
Omar Beckles has been vocal in highlighting mental health issues and is looking forward to the occasion.
“We can only hope this raises more awareness,” said Omar. “That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.
“Teaming up with Mind will hopefully raise that awareness. The more the merrier and we are just doing our little bit.
“I will never know how big the impact will be now, but years down the line we might see an impact.
“A lot of people are talking about it, but no one is really addressing it in a deep and intimate way.
“Hopefully we can really go beyond the surface of mental health and get into it.
“The fans definitely appreciate players supporting a cause, so it was good to team up with Marvin Sordell in the reverse fixture.
“Hopefully we are building something that can last – something that will outlast me and Marvin.”
Omar founded his own charity called Hub365 and gave an insight into the organisation to Shrewsweb.
“Hub365 is an initiative to really address issues,” said Omar. “It’s all about cohesion and bringing people together.
“Our slogan is ‘Together we do more’, so it’s all about community and different organisations coming together and really addressing issues.
“We are doing our best to raise funds to support other charities and mine – that’s what happens with the money.
“We want to build an infrastructure that we can use to help other kids who are isolated.
“Kids are quite engaging with our talks, so I hope it's really touching and pressing them onto the real issues.
“They have been really good and it’s something we will carry on. I strongly recommend anyone to talk to someone if they need to – there is so much help out there.
“If you don’t feel like going down that route – then speak to those closest to you.”