Football team no one wants to join but is so special

ONE day in spring 2020, Olly Monk and his wife thought they'd try attending a hospital coffee morning.

- GRETA SIMPSON

The couple had suffered a miscarriage in December 2018, and lost their twin girls Poppy and Dottie, aged 23 weeks, the following October.

They were 10 minutes late for the meeting, aimed at bereaved parents, and the door was locked.

They had to knock to be let in. Oliver filed in, in front of a silent circle of strangers to whom he'd shortly be expected to bear his soul. He felt awkward.

"We were the newbies and didn't know anyone. I left thinking, I can't do that again," he told the M.E.N.

The setting was the same hospital their twins had been stillborn. And there was only one other dad. Both facts contributed to the unease Olly felt.

And it was this unease that propelled Olly to launch a club of his own, along with 12 other bereaved fathers.

At Angels United FC, every player bears a name on the back of their kit.

Each is the name of a child they have tragically lost.

The club's weekly training sessions and fortnightly matches are a chance for dads to meet, socialise, and talk about what they're experiencing with people who can relate.

"Baby and child loss affects so many people, from every walk of life," Olly said.

"But there's so much work to be done educating people on how to act around a bereaved parent.

There's still this attitude where people don't want to ask questions, or say your children's names.

"We love it when people do. We gave them names for a reason, for them to be spoken about and remembered.