\n The Norwich-born initiative designed to save lives is urging Norwich City Football Club to reconsider its decision not to place its QR-code stickers around Carrow Road.\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad is a men’s mental health service that can be accessed anonymously. (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad puts small stickers on the safe-standing rails, allowing supporters who are struggling with their mental health to reach its anonymous platform discreetly.\n<\/p>\n
\n But while Norwich City has displayed Say It Lad posters around the stadium concourses, it has declined to adopt the stickers at the heart of the campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club said stickers placed on rails were easily removed by supporters, could encourage graffiti and would become \u201cuntidy or ineffective within days\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n NCFC has rejected the Say It Lad barcodes adopted by other football clubs (Image: Andy Sumner\/Focus Images Ltd)\n<\/p>\n
\n It said the scheme was therefore neither sustainable nor practical and added that mental-health signposting must meet its safeguarding standards.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Canaries also said its wellbeing campaigns needed to be inclusive of every supporter and could not focus on one sex or section of its fanbase.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, Say It Lad was deliberately created to reach men, the group accounting for around three-quarters of recorded suicide deaths in England.\n<\/p>\n
\n Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show the suicide rate among men remains approximately three times that of women.\n<\/p>\n
\n Men aged between 50 and 54 recorded the highest age-specific suicide rate in England and Wales in 2024, at 27.5 deaths per 100,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad was founded in Norwich (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad merchandise is on sale in Norwich and Cambridge (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad founder Jonny Human said football grounds were among the most obvious places to reach men who might otherwise continue suffering in silence.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cSay It Lad was born in Norwich out of a desire to improve the mental health of men in Norfolk and, ultimately, to prevent suicides.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen you look at the age and sex of those most at risk, football grounds are one of the most obvious places to reach men who may be struggling but are not yet ready to ask for help.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe fully acknowledge the club\u2019s point that not every Norwich City supporter is male, but a very high proportion of the people in those stands are.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese are exactly the men we are trying to reach: those who may never walk into a mental-health service or tell somebody face-to-face that they are struggling, but who might quietly scan a code on the seat in front of them.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are not asking the club to solve every problem. We are asking it to give men an open goal, a simple and anonymous way to take that vital first step and say what is going on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Jonny Human of Say It Lad (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n Scanning one of the stickers takes supporters directly to Say It Lad\u2019s platform, where they can listen to anonymous voice notes recorded by other men or leave a message describing what they are going through.\n<\/p>\n
\n Users do not need to give their name, create an account or download an app.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Human believes recording a voice note can be the first step towards opening up, acknowledging a problem and eventually seeking further help.\n<\/p>\n
\n The campaign has gained support from local businesses, online influencers and merchandise is being sold in Norwich shop Dogfish.\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad uses barcodes which men can scan discreetly if they are struggling with their mental health (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n Southampton FC and Southend United have already placed Say It Lad stickers at St Mary\u2019s and Roots Hall respectively.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sheffield Wednesday and Newport County have also pledged to adopt the stickers. The Say It Lad team are in the final stages of negotiation with Nottingham Forest.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Human stressed that he did not want the campaign\u2019s disappointment to be interpreted as an attack on Norwich City, which runs its own mental-health programmes and works with organisations including Mind and Samaritans.\n<\/p>\n
\n But he questioned whether the club had scored an own goal by refusing to back an initiative developed on its own doorstep.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cFootball terraces are hardly famous for being pristine environments, so the suggestion that these small stickers could become too untidy seems disproportionate.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf a sticker looks slightly untidy but puts a lifeline directly in front of somebody who needs it, surely that is a price worth paying.\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad says it has been left on the sidelines by NCFC (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is about far more than keeping the stands tidy. It is about making sure every man who walks through those turnstiles knows there is somewhere he can turn.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Human said it was particularly disappointing to see Say It Lad welcomed by clubs elsewhere while being left on the sidelines in the city where it kicked off.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cSay It Lad is Norwich through and through. It was built here, by Norwich City supporters, for men in this community.\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad was created to reach the men who struggle to open up and talk (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOther clubs have already given us a chance, but we want to bring this campaign home.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe want Norwich City to back its home side and help us put a potential lifeline within reach of thousands of supporters at Carrow Road.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe sincerely hope the club will reconsider, get behind us and allow Norwich fans to benefit from an initiative grown on their own turf.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cNorwich is where Say It Lad kicked off. Now we want the club to help us bring it home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n In its response to the campaign, Norwich City said mental health and wellbeing were already central to its work.\n<\/p>\n
\n Say It Lad is a men’s mental health service that can be accessed anonymously. (Image: Say It Lad)\n<\/p>\n
\n NCFC said the stickers would look untidy (Image: Paul Chesterton)\n<\/p>\n
\n It pointed to community programmes, matchday initiatives, awareness campaigns, mental-health workshops delivered through the Community Sports Foundation and signposting to specialist support.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club said it relies upon guidance from organisations including Mind and Samaritans to ensure supporters are directed towards appropriate and safe help.\n<\/p>\n
\n It added that retaining consistent branding helped supporters recognise information as official club guidance aligned with its safeguarding procedures.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norwich City said it had installed Say It Lad posters around its concourses and would review data showing how many people had scanned the posters and monitor the campaign\u2019s progress.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norwich City Football Club Norwich City said it had worked to support Say It Lad since the organisation first approached the club. It also highlighted its wider mental health work with Samaritans and said it regularly directed supporters in need towards the charity.\n<\/p>\n
\n The issue had since been discussed with the club by its Supporter Panel. Norwich City maintained that it had not ruled out working with Say It Lad, but believed any activity needed to be delivered in a way consistent with its support for other charities and organisations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Anyone struggling can visit www.sayitlad.com or contact Samaritans free of charge, at any time, by calling 116 123<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norwich-born initiative designed to save lives is urging Norwich City Football Club to reconsider its decision not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-630298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}