In May, 58-year-old Mark Philpott began a 1,000 mile 70-day run from Land’s End to John O’Groats, his Run For Rugby 2023 helping to raise funds and awareness of LooseHeadz and their aim to have a LooseHead mental health lead in every rugby club in the UK and across the world.
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Started by three friends from Wilmslow RFC who recognised a pressing need to help rugby players struggling with their mental health, LooseHeadz started out selling T-shirts. This quickly expanded beyond both the club and the local area and, at last count, at least 800 rugby clubs worldwide had LooseHead mental health leads.
LooseHeadz is still funded by sales of their clothing range, which creates interest and discussion around mental health and fundraising events such as Mark’s magnificent 1,000 mile run. Mark will be pausing on the route to promote LooseHeadz and their mission to rugby clubs, while also inspiring business partners to support them on their journey.
A Kiwi, Mark is both a cancer and mental health survivor. He is a full-time ultra distance athlete, and is welcoming anyone from the rugby family who would like to join him for part of the run. You can follow the run online via the dedicated Instagram page, and with daily Vlogs being posted to his YouTube channel.
Working with the Mental Health Foundation, LooseHeadz’ impressive work sees the RFU referring clubs who need help and advice on mental wellbeing to them.
The LooseHeadz bespoke toolkit for rugby clubs includes: an online training platform leading to CPD qualification, a wellbeing check-in platform, and a 24-7 text line, where people who text RUGBY to 85258 can talk to a trained operator within 15 minutes to help and support their mental health.
A new Talk Headz initiative sees them working with partner charity Talk Club to get men to talk openly about their mental health in a safe environment. They are also planning to launch a youth mental health platform, prompted by feedback from rugby clubs seeking help for their 10-18 age group.
Mark will visit at least 27 rugby clubs as he makes his way to his final destination and clubs who would like to welcome him can also get in touch by contacting info@looseheadz.co.uk.
“It’s a lot easier for me to run 1,000 miles through the UK than it is for a lot of people dealing with mental illness. I’ll be glad to see anyone from rugby either on the run or at the clubs I’m visiting,” he said.
Before flying home to Mexico, where he currently lives and trains, and to prepare for his next epic run, he will drop in at Twickenham Stadium, the home of England Rugby.
