From the historic heights of the FA Cup to life in the Football League, Sutton United have rewritten their story on the pitch.
But this episode is about something else.
More than football.
Behind the scenes at Gander Green Lane, lives are being changed in ways that never show up in a league table. On this episode of the Sutton United Talk Time Podcast, Mike speaks to Karen and Charlie, two stories that show exactly what this club means to its community.
Mike Dowling
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time 1 podcast. It's the Sutton podcast in association with Lucky Star Gym. Don't worry, we're not talking about stuff that goes on on the Gander Green Lane pitch. But if you are a regular listener, thank you very much.
Mike Dowling
And if you're a new listener, you are very, very welcome. I'm your host, Mike. And today I'll be talking to Charlie from the Fantastic Freddy Foundation to find out all about what they do and how being the club's charity of the year has been. But first, I'm catching up with Karen from, well, she's in the Foundation, she's had a few updates, she's discovered Parkinson's walking football when we last spoke, and now she has the small matter of representing England in a National Tournament to look forward to, hopefully.
Mike Dowling
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Mike Dowling
Chat with other fans. Let me know what you'd like to hear. Find us on all social media platforms at Sutton Podcast. All those likes, shares, thumbs up and all the rest of it really help grow and reach more Sutton United fans.
Mike Dowling
Karen, thank you for making time for me. Thank you for making time for me, Mike. More than welcome. A lot has happened since you were last on.
Mike Dowling
I'm not going to say nervous, but you weren't really sure what was going on. You were like, oh, I don't know if I want to do a podcast.
Karen
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
You'd kind of... You you were coming to the football, but you were you'd only just started if I remember that's correct Yeah, but before we get into all that Can we have a very quick check-in with the trainers and the storage situation that was hanging on last time?
Karen
I don't have any more trainers and the storage hasn't got any bigger I've told my husband he needs to make it bigger because I've got some that don't fit on there at moments I and but he's put me on a trainer ban because he thinks I've got too many so I
Mike Dowling
okay so it's a trainer band but yeah i paid a lot of money for a pair of shoes yeah i was just looking at a logo there that's yeah that's extreme from trainers it's quite extreme yes So, when we last spoke, you were involved as a participant in the walking football. Correct. Since then you've got more involved and you've even done some of the boxing.
Mike Dowling
Was you coaching with Mean Dean as well?
Karen
I've done a bit of coaching. I've led some classes with the boxing when Mean Dean hasn't been able to attend. Yeah, we took the boxing out onto the pitch at Sutton United a couple of weeks ago for the Foundation Day, which was exciting. you know, showing what we can do, you know, and even if you've got Parkinson's, you can still punch and you can still punch very hard.
Karen
So it's very good. Very good.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. You did say we weren't going to talk about stuff on the pitch, but I will, I will let that one slide. That's fine. That's not.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. So to catch us up, you, last time you were saying how sort of really it's helped joining this group. I don't think it really mattered that it was football or not, but it was a group of people. So just remind us what it means to you and others to have these sort of groups available.
Karen
So when we first started, the community was very small. There was about five of us. And now there's about 25 of us. So it's, it's, it's got massive and we've got so many more people and it's not just people with Parkinson's, it's people with other conditions.
Karen
Um, and they come along and we play football. We have a laugh. Um, we've even been in two tournaments since I last spoke to you. We were lucky enough to be invited to Arsenal's ground last August.
Karen
And, um, we had a five-a-side tournament against some other local teams. I mean, unfortunately we didn't win. We didn't come bottom, but, um, we didn't win. But it was it was a great opportunity for us as a team to be, you know, out there playing for Sutton United Foundation and showing us, showing the world what we were at, really.
Karen
And then earlier on this month, we were invited to St George's Park for the biggest Parkinson's football tournament in England. And that was massive, just being able to play at the training pitch at St George's Park. There was 24 teams, there was over 400 people with Parkinson's, there was 500 people spectating. It was just a massive event and it was so good to be part of that.
Karen
And it's so good that our little team from Sutton, which is probably the smallest place, nobody really knew about us. to go all the way up to St. George's Park and just represent the Sutton United Foundation was amazing. It was great.
Mike Dowling
Everyone kept asking you, was it the yellow shirts you were wearing?
Karen
Yes, we looked like minions, but they weren't very nice. They were very oversized, but they weren't a fashion accessory. But we had to wear them because there wasn't nothing else available. But yeah, going back to playing at the tournament at Arsenal last August, as we got out of our minibus, there was me and myself and three other ladies.
Karen
They got pounced on by these gentlemen. We thought we'd done something wrong. And they said, they're doing trials for the England Parkinson's team. Would you like to take part?
Karen
And we're like, oh yeah, okay. When is it? It was sometime in September. So we said, yeah, yeah, why not give it a go?
Karen
So we did. Me, myself, and another one of our teammates went up to Droitwich in the Midlands and trialed out for the day. And another lady had sent a video in because she couldn't make it because she was on holiday. And we met up with the whole coaching squad.
Karen
There was 18 people trialing out. And a lot of people knew each other through another team called the Parkinson's Pioneers, which is a big ladies walking football team who have Parkinson's based in Solihull. So I thought there's no way in the world that they're going to pick little old me from Sutton. It was only me and my other friend that had come from London.
Karen
Everyone else was up from the Midlands and, you know, up north, you know, they all knew each other. It was all very clicky. And I thought, oh, this isn't going to work. But apparently, it did.
Karen
I seemed to impress them. And I got the phone call 10 days later to say that I've been chosen to be part of the Parkinson's England walking football team for the ladies. So it's a massive achievement. I had to pick myself off the floor.
Karen
I thought, this isn't right. Somebody's pulling my leg. How can little old me, at almost 50 years of age, with Parkinson's, be chosen to play for England? it's just like a pinch me moment it was absolutely crazy and since then that community has just opened up and it's you know I'm part of three different communities with football with Parkinson's and it's just it's crazy basically.
Mike Dowling
Did you have any inkling when you were at the training camp that, do you know what, I might get picked and we could just come away from it?
Karen
No, not at all. I just come away thinking, you know, did I do what I wanted to do? Did I impress? I felt, first of all, I felt like nobody was going to pass to me because they didn't know me.
Karen
So I sort of did a little bit of research before I went and it said sort of make yourself friendly, you know, come out yourself and just introduce yourself, you know, be friendly. And that's what I did. I went and I introduced myself to people. I just made myself sort of popular basically.
Karen
And that's not me. I was completely out of my comfort zone. I'm quite shy, quite retiring. But I was just like, no, I'm going to make a go of this.
Karen
I made myself big on the pitch. I made sure I was in space. When I got the ball, you know, I didn't just, I wasn't just greedy. I made sure I passed it.
Karen
And, you know, it probably helped that I scored two quite good goals, which was quite good for me and from that point they thought I was a striker, which I'm not, I'm more of a midfield winger, but they like to play me up as a striker. From then it was just like people were saying, you're a good player, why don't you come up to Solihull every month and play with the Parkinson's Pioneers. I thought, oh yeah, I might do it. It's a three-hour journey every month, so it's a case of asking my husband to take me.
Karen
And he said, no, no problem, we will come up. So then I made myself part of that. And then obviously, the whole England thing has just taken off from there, really. And we were told that our first tournament would be later on this year in September, and it would be in Canada.
Karen
And I thought, wow, Canada, never been there, always wanted to go there and play football. It was like, yes, definitely, I'm coming. And then they said, oh, we've got to raise money for that. And I was like, ah, okay, fair enough.
Karen
They've got sponsors, so a lot of their sponsors are stumping up some of the money, but we had to find some more money. And the GoFundMe was set up about six weeks ago now. And I just took it upon myself to think, well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this to the best I can and I want to do it my way. And I thought, right, I'm going to do a raffle.
Karen
No, a raffle's not good enough. I'm going to do a quiz and a raffle. Then I thought, no, why not do something else? I'm doing a quiz, a raffle, and an auction all in one night.
Karen
to raise as much funds as possible to go towards the GoFundMe. We'll also have collection pots for Parkinson's UK because obviously without Parkinson's UK, the team wouldn't be available to play in. So they're a big part of this journey as well, because they obviously give Sutton United money to fund the Parkinson's session. So yes, it's going to be massive, hopefully massive.
Mike Dowling
Just going back to that phone call for a minute. Unknown caller, or did you recognise the number?
Karen
No, it was a mobile number that came up, but obviously I hadn't had it saved. My friend that played in my team, she texted me and said, have you heard anything? And I said, no, not yet. And this was at half past 10 on the Thursday morning.
Karen
She said, oh, well, I did, but I didn't get in. And I said, oh, I'm really sorry to hear that. She said, no, no, no, don't let that put you off. You're a good player.
Karen
I hope you get in. I said, well, I'm not holding my breath, I thought. There's no way. And then from half past 10 until I got the phone call at half past 11, I was in a mess.
Karen
I was like, come on, just ring, just ring. And then I thought, if I'm on my way for my phone, I'm going to lose my phone or my phone's going to go out of signal. So I stood by the window for about 20 minutes where I work because the signal was rubbish. And then the phone rang and I almost dropped the phone.
Karen
I said, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, answer it, answer it, answer it. And I answered it. Hiya Karen, it's Gemma. I just wanted to say thank you for taking part on the trial day.
Karen
She said, you played extremely well, you're really good, you really know what you're doing, you're a good footballer. We'd love to have you as part of the team. I'm like, oh my god. I said, say that again.
Karen
She said, We'd like to have you as part of our England squad." I said, you're not having me on, are you? She went, no. She said, you're a really good player. You give so much to the team.
Karen
It'd be a joy to have you. And then she said, I'll catch up with you. There'll be some emails flowing, you know, between now and next week. Just make sure you look out for them, fill the forms in and blah, blah, blah.
Karen
And that was it. Put the phone down. And then I went, Christ, what am I going to do now? And then the first thing I did is I phoned my husband.
Karen
I said, I got in. He went,
Charlie
I've got into the England squad. He's like, well done, well done.
Karen
And then I just told everyone and it went sort of from this little old me just shying away from me shouting it to everyone. A lot of people were like, yeah, whatever. It's walking football, whatever. It's walking football.
Karen
And so it was sort of left under a bit of a cloud for a while until people sort of realized it's a big thing. It's massive being chosen to play for your country. in any way, shape or form. You play for England, you're going to wear their badge.
Karen
It's crazy, absolutely crazy.
Mike Dowling
whatever it is, you're gonna go, yes, thank you very much. At the start of that call, oh, you're really, really good. Thanks for joining us. You were like, that's it.
Mike Dowling
No, no, no, no.
Karen
Yeah, it's like they're trying to butt you up to sort of, you know, no thank you, but no thank you. But yeah, it is. And I did have to sort of like pick my jaw up off the floor thinking, oh my God, this is actually happening to me. So it was, it was quite a like surreal moment really.
Mike Dowling
So you've already hinted at some of this, but is it going to be full England camp, private flights, all expenses paid, five-star hotels?
Karen
We're not quite sure of the logistics at the moment. All I know is that we're all going out as a team. It will be funded for us as the players. I don't know what part of Canada it is yet.
Karen
It's all sort of like We had to see if we could raise the funds and at the moment our fundraiser is sitting at just under £8,000. So they started it at £5,500, it exceeded that, so they've pushed the boundaries a little bit further. I don't know exactly how much they want to aim for, but it's whatever we can aim for, you know, it's an amazing achievement and it's only gone out of word of mouth from all the players. and it's gone through people's social medias and friends and family have just shared it.
Karen
So it's quite an achievement in such a short space to be looking at just under eight grand at the moment.
Mike Dowling
You listed a few things that you were doing, but we'll come back to that. So what other kind of events that you know of is happening to raise money? Is everyone doing their own individual things?
Karen
I don't know. I wasn't told to do this. I just thought I'd take it upon myself. I'm one of these people that does something and does something 100%.
Karen
And I thought, I'm not going to go half-hearted in raising money. I'm going to go all in. And just by putting the GoFundMe out on my socials and sharing it with people at work Through my husband's work, I thought, that's not good enough. I need to get a big chunk of money.
Karen
And I thought, how am I going to do that? And then I thought, oh, people like a quiz. People like to partake in a raffle. And just went from there, really, in such a short period.
Karen
Basically, it's been in planning since the beginning of the Easter holidays. And the night is on the 2nd of May, so it's not far to go now. So it's all I can think of to try and get everything right in the right place and make a good night of it so everyone can enjoy themselves.
Mike Dowling
So where is it being held again?
Karen
It's being held at Sutton United. They've been kind enough to let us have the NBA lounge without having to pay any money, so that's a bonus. So that's my main thing, trying to get as much money out of people without spending any money myself. So I've been lucky enough to only have paid out £7 for two books of raffle tickets and we've won our second book of raffle tickets and we're going really well.
Karen
So we've already made about £400 from the raffle. At the moment, they're sitting at 93 seats of the quiz being sold. So my aim is to get 100 seats or more to fill the place out and get as many people involved as possible just to come and support us, support the cause, support the team, bring money back into Sutton United through bar sales as well, and just be part of the evening really.
Karen
And if people don't want to take part in the quiz, we've got some unique items that we're auctioning off that I've been lucky enough, again, to be given. So I've not spent any money on them either. All the raffle prizes have been donated from local companies, local businesses that I know of, people that play football with me, people who play boxing. Everyone's just saying, hey, take that.
Karen
Take that for the raffle. Take that. So everyone's been very generous. And I've got a lot of raffle prizes and some really good auction prizes to auction off to.
Mike Dowling
Excellent. Can you name any of them? Well, the auction prizes.
Karen
So, if you're a Sutton United fan, you might be interested in this. We've got a Sutton United shirt signed by this season's team. We've also got one of our footballers is a very good artist. She drew a picture of Sutton United striker Louis Simpah and he was kind enough to sign his picture for us.
Karen
So that's there as well. We've also got a Chelsea top from the 2011-2012 season. It's a junior top signed by John Terry that was gifted by one of our Parkinson's football players as well. And because I had a few contacts through Arsenal, I spoke to them at St George's Park and they donated me Miles Lewis Skelly's training top from last season.
Karen
and I've got a signed top signed by the whole of the UEFA Champions League Arsenal ladies team. So that's all the football paraphernalia. Then a friend of mine who runs her own business has donated a make-up session for five people with a bottle of Prosecco and a goodie bag.
Mike Dowling
so we've got we've got mainly a range of football attire but we've sticked that in for the ladies hopefully we'll get um a few ladies bedded on that with any luck excellent and aside from coming along to join you on the 2nd of may if anyone's listening now what what else can they do to help um
Karen
If anyone's interested or if there's any businesses out there that have got a few quid they want to throw away, they can get in contact with the Stoughton Foundation and they've got the GoFundMe account that money could be put on. So if you've got a spare fiver, it's £5 towards us getting there. Or even if you want to come along for the evening and spend £5 on a raffle ticket, you might win something that you really like. We've got some really good raffle prizes, ranging from bottles of champagne to actually a lot of season tickets, a voucher for a family ticket for Sutton United, so I'm sure people would like to win that.
Karen
We've also got a free function room with a £50 bar voucher being donated from Goals in Cheam. So if anyone has a party that's coming up soon, they're chucking that in their function room with a £50 bar voucher. I mean, that's you know, something for nothing. A couple of beauty companies locally have given me vouchers, so any ladies out there want their hair or their nails done for cut price or money off, we've got lots and lots of alcohol.
Karen
lots of nice hampers filled with lots of toiletries and stuff that people have donated. We've got about 36 raffle prizes at the moment. It's quite a big thing. I mean, it's clogging up my dining table at the moment, so my husband's not happy about that.
Mike Dowling
At least it's not trainers. No. This is a stupid question considering some of your earlier answers, but what would it mean personally to be able to attend and represent your country?
Karen
It would just mean the world. When I got diagnosed three and a half years ago, I thought my life was going to end very soon. They don't tell you how long you've got. You just have to carry on until you can't carry on anymore.
Karen
To begin with, I didn't know where I was going, what my life was going to hold. About 18 months down the line, I found the football. you know, Chris Corner and Harry are just, you know, the best thing that happened to me, really, because on the back of that, Harry then asked me if I'd run an over 35 women's team. And it's not a walking football team, it's a running football team.
Karen
So I now manage that and run that and I've just come from there this evening. So, you know, we've got a market where there's more women being introduced into football. And then going from that, playing in the tournaments, never been able to be, you know, never played competitively. So playing against other people is just the best thing really that I've done really.
Karen
And it helps with my Parkinson's. So when I'm playing football, I don't even feel like I've got Parkinson's. So it's a win all the time that you're exercising is helping you. I might crash when I come home, but at least I know that I've been there.
Karen
I've enjoyed my session and played football. I've helped people that haven't played football before improve their football or just be part of a team really.
Mike Dowling
amazing um we will of course um put the link in as well for the uh the gofundme um please i know obviously everyone asks for money at various times but please give generously because i would love to speak to you um after tournament so you can tell us all about it. See if you've taken that top off because I'm guessing it's been on pretty much 24-7 is it?
Karen
Yes, I'm not supposed to wear it out of the house but I asked if I could wear it for today so it's affiliated by the walking football association you can't really see it but it's our training top with my initials on it so when I see that I was like oh my god that's my initials on the top and so we'll get our full kit hopefully soon. It had arrived our last training session but they didn't have the relevant sponsors on it and the badges and stuff that had to go on it. So it's yeah when I got that I got a little bag with it in and it's like oh my god I've got an England kit in my bag and it's like it's yeah it's it's crazy.
Karen
I come straight home and I went to both my sons and said look mum's got an England kit and waved it in there and they're like okay mum okay and it's sort of like taking it in their stride as they do.
Mike Dowling
I was given it by England, I didn't pay for it.
Karen
They've come up and watched me as well. they now understand exactly where I'm coming from. So it was quite nice to be able to show my family what it means to me as well. So it's really, really good.
Mike Dowling
Excellent. Well, best of luck on the 2nd of May. Hopefully we'll see lots of people there in Sutton United paraphernalia winning those shirts. And now we're going to seamlessly join the second interview like a proper professional.
Mike Dowling
Did you see that? Just nothing. It was amazing. Charlie is joining us from the fantastic Freddie Foundation, Sutton United's Charity of the Year.
Mike Dowling
Charlie, thank you for squeezing me in. I know you've just come from another session. Hope you are very well.
Charlie
No, my pleasure, Mike. I appreciate you getting in touch and taking the time to have me on. Eventually, is what you wanted to say. It's on both ends, really.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, it was a very deep, detailed conversation. I don't remember much about it. It was after a win, I think, so I was hydrated.
Charlie
I think all the best conversations are in a slide like that, really, aren't they?
Mike Dowling
And for anyone who doesn't know, can you kind of give us a snapshot and tell us what the about Freddie and the foundation, what's the story behind it and the name of what you do?
Charlie
Yeah, yeah. So the easiest place to start is we run regular social and leisure opportunities for young adults with disabilities. We're based mostly in Sutton, but we sort of operate in the surrounding boroughs and we're not strictly Sutton based. If you want to travel, then you're more than welcome to us.
Charlie
The mission behind it is just to make sure that every single young person, regardless of perceived ability, is able to live their youth, have control over their social lives and have access to areas that were probably once seen inaccessible for the disabled community. The story behind is Freddy was on my friends. He had cerebral palsy and he died a few years ago and he was always say he lived the most fortunate unfortunate life and he was dealt, you know a tough a tough hand but he never let his disability get in his way of having fun and enjoying himself and making friends and just he saw the world in such a what inspiring way especially to me because you know, I just the way that he took on every single barrier and every hurdle didn't really take no for an answer.
Charlie
And the sort of birthplace behind the charity is that his family worked very, very hard to get him a really good care team around him, made sure that he had access to lots of opportunities. But we saw that when we were taking him and his friends on trips, you know, we did festivals, we did club nights, we took him and his mates on the last holidays, that sort of thing. But that was the only time that his peer group and his friends were actually accessing those opportunities. And that's not a slight on people that are trying to do this sort of thing.
Charlie
But I think historically the disabled community, it's a lot of patronizing tones around the sort of thing that they can. and We wanted to make sure that every young adult with a disability was able to do that, just to access authentic opportunities, nothing watered down, and pretty much live their youth and their life in the same way as their peers in the wider community.
Mike Dowling
So you started with cerebral palsy, is it branched out or is it still within the cerebral palsy community only?
Charlie
No, the whole landscape of disability, we've not had to turn anyone away and we'll never turn anyone away. whatever disability they have and you don't have to the good thing about us compared to a lot of obviously I'm going to say this but um compared to a lot of organizations is that we aren't under a council umbrella so you don't need any hcp a health care plan to come to us you don't need to be referred officially through a social worker um and you know that we know a lot of people that are You know, still actually waiting for a diagnosis and in lots of sort of organizations for no fault of their own, it's just the way it is.
Charlie
You need that official diagnosis before you can start engaging in these foundations and organizations. So yeah, as long as you are registered disabled or you identify as being disabled and are going through the process of getting a diagnosis, you can, yeah, you're more than welcome to join us and be part of the fun.
Mike Dowling
And is there a link up with, I know that we charity the year, but is there a link up with the community sides at Sutton United as well? Because I know there's quite a few players from there I noticed at your table a couple of weeks ago.
Charlie
Yeah, I mean, to be fair, we've been very lucky. Well, I feel very lucky. It's a very young charity. We've only been going for two, two and a half years.
Charlie
And the relationship between us and the football club has been such a positive. You know, Harry and everyone from the foundation to everyone behind the bar, to, you know, the people that are right at the top level, to the players, they've all sort of given their time in a different way. You know, we've had players speak to our members. And they've come to our golf days, helped raise money for us.
Charlie
So yeah, I can't really fault sort of everyone at pretty much every level. They've been really good to us.
Mike Dowling
Off the pitch. Anyway, no, we're not talking about football today. So what are the main things you kind of work on? What would a week for you be like?
Charlie
We have, well it depends, but we have up to about 12, 13 sessions a month. We do something on them every Monday evening and every Wednesday evening. They range from like just a social club where we have darts board, pool table, video games, DJ decks, that sort of stuff, or accessible sports sessions, pan disability football sessions. And then we have sort of a calendar of initiatives throughout the year.
Charlie
So we have a mates and dates relationship event just all about Forming connections having that chance to sort of meet someone you're you're gonna spark a connection with We have a DJ Academy, which one of our sort of more prouder ones for me, especially and we work with some pretty, you know high high-end names in the in the music world Scott Garcia shy cookie who's the producer for MC luck and DJ neat and and They've been really, really fantastic. So we've got this DJ Academy with 12 young people on it, which lasts a year. And we've actually got them playing at four festivals in the summer as well.
Charlie
We've got a tour with Shy Cookies House and Garage Orchestra in the works next year to sort of pave that way from Beginner DJ to bedroom DJ to actually get professional experience and accessing that sort of the many people inaccessible side of the world and then in summer we do weekends away last year we took 12 people surfing in Wales We got six festival trips this summer and then we also run a sort of a calendar of high octane events So we've done sports car driving experience. Next month, we've got accessible flying lessons, we've got indoor skydiving, we've got accessible snow sports. So as you can see, we kind of, well, you said typical week, it really does vary from month to month.
Mike Dowling
Jump out of a plane. Exactly. So, I mean, some of those may have crossed over already, but you did hint to me that there was some new initiatives that were coming out. Was that the festivals or was there more
Charlie
the fifth Access to the water community spaces and the festivals is one of them. You know, we've started a new initiative at our pub night we do a monthly pub night and which is great the Robin Hood because they are very very Welcoming they make sure we got our space and then make sure that everyone feels really Sort of what happy and just and safe really and the high octane Adventure activities is one that we we're starting next month. So yeah, the flying experiences is the first of many But we've got you've got a lot of things in the works a lot of things in the works It's only really been a year this time last year.
Charlie
We were running Maybe two or three events a month and now we're in summer pushing 15.
Mike Dowling
So yeah, it's always changing So I'm sorry to be so crude, but where does the money come from and how do you fund all this? Because it's not going to be cheap.
Charlie
No, no, it's not cheap. Lots of different avenues, but mainly grant applications. I spend a lot of my time writing. I thought my uni days of writing essays were over.
Charlie
They're not and so yeah, the majority of that comes from from grants. We don't get any money from central government or the council We do get some small council pots for certain initiatives like that makes and bakes and and also we have some sponsors we have some some individual donors, but the the main thing is that we try to keep it as as cheap as possible as affordable as possible because you know to live for a family to live with just one person with a disability and it costs them I wouldn't even like to guess how much more per month and often that means that the social side the stuff that we deal with gets pushed back because you know if you've got to pay for OTs and prescriptions and you know XYZ this sort of stuff gets pushed back a little bit so we've put a real emphasis on not charging whole load to our to our
Charlie
participants and see a quite a few avenues really Yeah, I used to work in benefits.
Mike Dowling
I still do but slightly You know and it always used to make me laugh when you hear all the news of all they get this much and you're like Yes, what they spend is so much more guaranteed anymore.
Charlie
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, absolutely. So if someone is listening and wants to support to help to do something, what's the easiest way to do this? How can people help? Can they volunteer their time?
Mike Dowling
Is it donations? What is what's the best way?
Charlie
Absolutely. I mean, for me, because I'm the only employee still, and I have a lot of help from volunteers with the events and sessions. If you have a spare couple of hours on an evening every week, or once a month, or whatever, that is probably the best way that you can help, because it takes, we have a very small amount of volunteers, and they're all fantastic, but they do a hell of a lot for us.
Charlie
So it takes that burden off them, because they're giving their own time. But aside from that, If you have time to run a fundraiser for us or you want to do a park run or anything, again, because of the time that's put into grant applications and actually planning these things for the young people, the fundraising stuff is often not at the forefront of how my time's spent. So if you can think of a cool way to raise some money for us, that would be absolutely fantastic.
Charlie
But aside from that, practical help, again, if you've got couple of hours a week to help with admin if you've got um i don't know office space if you've got a certain skill or talent that you'd want to share with our young people then come and run a workshop for us we're always trying to make sure that the young people that we serve have access to new, exciting opportunities. So, you know, if you have a niche in, I don't know, producing music or a niche in, I don't know, you've got access to classic cars or whatever, these are just two examples, then get in touch with us because we'd love to run a day trip or a workshop to introduce you and your passion to our participants.
Mike Dowling
I won't teach him podcasting because I'm useless and Lewis and Harry would go, oh, we can do that. You missed out on a trick there because what you should have been saying is, oh, if you're good at applying for grants, let me know.
Charlie
I'll umbrella that underneath for the admin, yeah.
Mike Dowling
So what did it mean and how did it come about to be the club's charity of the year?
Charlie
So, I mean, this goes right back from the start. We had our launch in February 2024 at the football club and, you know, At that time, I was only part-time and setting everything up and doing the constitution, blah, blah, blah. And one of the most annoying things was trying to find a suitable venue that, A, ain't going to break the bank, and that is accessible, that is near to a train station, and everything else. And I'd gone and seen probably 10 venues in the local area.
Charlie
But the biggest thing that stood out was that Sutton and the people that were there at the time, some are still there, were the only people to actually show interest in what the Foundation was doing. Rather than rather than just taking our money to do the to the event They were actually interested in from right of this from right day one. They wanted to help They wanted us to be part of the the football club and show support in every way that they can One second. I'm sure yeah turn my charger on should have done that the start There we go, sorry and yeah, so Even from the first couple of months, giving us free tickets, giving us food vouchers, making sure that all our young people that come to the games feel as welcome
Charlie
as possible. They've welcomed our advice in terms of how to engage more of the disabled community. So actually when we were put forward for it last year, it meant a real big deal because I know the Sutton Football Club in general is such a or community feel, and that's always the angle that they're going for. So it was a real, yeah, it was a privilege.
Charlie
And also because, you know, we're quite young, so it's a, it's a, it's a scale of acknowledgement that, you know, we're doing, we're doing something well, and we're doing something that's really needed. Because you speak to anyone at the club, I think they can see the enthusiasm that comes from all of our team, and it's actually met by, you know, by everyone at the football club. So yeah, we were really, really pleased.
Mike Dowling
and what has been kind of a highlight for you personally and as the charity for the whole year? What's been kind of a highlight for you?
Charlie
Charity game of the year a couple of weeks ago seeing all the players warm up in our shirts Having some of our members and participants give out the man. Although the games pretty poor we still Yeah, no, it doesn't narrow it down But yeah, although I'm sure the man of the match probably wants to be everywhere, but taking a man of the match award, it was really nice to see everyone in our community in their shirts and him wearing a shirt. Again, that was just, it was a sort of a lightbulb moment of actually, you know, this is, Sutton's a big football club and we're directly associated with them.
Charlie
So it was a nice, it was a nice thing. And also to see all the people that helped us from the start, all our volunteers, Freddie's family, to see that, I think it was a, you know, you can see the legacy in action.
Mike Dowling
I've said to various players, I know when we lose and you stand there as man of match, you just be like, I can't stand here smiling. But those people who have sponsored the game are going to have that picture. So you've got to crack a smile a little bit. It's really tricky for them.
Charlie
I think everyone there was sort of apologising to him half the time.
Mike Dowling
If you were able to, what advice would you give to the next charity of the year? How would you tell them to maximize from your experience?
Charlie
Good question. I think get as involved in the football club as possible, not just you know, wanting social posts or wanting, I don't know. Yeah, stuff off the pitch. I think the biggest thing that was really good for us is that all the people we've met inside the club, from the chairman right down to season ticket holders, I think getting involved at matchdays as much as possible and actually feeling part of the family, that's probably the
Charlie
only advice because everyone there has been pretty good. and the
Mike Dowling
a connection thing where you're both getting and giving at the same time and that's how the best connections work. If I had a magic wand and I could give you your big pipe dream in five years time, what would the charity or the foundation look like?
Charlie
We'd have our own little space with an office, and we have an office with local Southern Mencap and we're really grateful for that. But a space that has a charity shop at the front or a space that has, we can have on-site events rather than having to hire places all the time. the
Mike Dowling
Thank you so much, Charlie. I'm glad we finally caught up. I really hope Sutton fans continue to get involved and I could probably help you get the name in lights, but somewhere to put it, I don't know. Fairy lights, to be fair.
Mike Dowling
We're going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast. I'd always appreciate your attention and feedback. Follow, like, share on social media with the at Sutton Podcast. Obviously, I'll be tagging it in the Fantastic Freddie Foundation.
Mike Dowling
Don't forget to like, subscribe, give me the thumbs up and all the other stuff. Big thank you to Charlie and to Karen for their time today. Thank you for listening. Hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
Take care. Bye bye.
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