Former Rangers striker and all-around icon Ally McCoist has joined FC United, part of the work of Scotland’s national suicide prevention leadership group.
FC United officially launched in August and it marks a new approach to preventing suicide.
McCoist was featured in a tweet by the official movement’s page which showed the former Rangers striker holding an FC United football shirt, which has a united to prevent suicide badge, and also the word talk written across the front of the shirt.
“Talk to your pals, check in on your mates, be there to listen. Together we can make a difference.” read the words by the 59-year-old on the Twitter post.
Ally McCoist joins other Scottish football figures in supporting FC United
McCoist isn’t the only figure that is supporting the movement, with plenty more footballers having come out wearing the official shirt and pledging their commitment to helping prevent suicide.
Names such as Billy Gilmour, John Souttar, Nathan Patterson, and Erin Cuthbert have all been vocal in their support for FC United, and the more people that sign up, the better.
On average, two people will die by suicide a day in Scotland and the most recent release by Public Health Scotland on suicide stats for the year 2020 showed that there were 805 probable suicides, in which 71.4% of the people who died were male.
I think we can all agree that these stats are far too high, and everything must be done to prevent as many suicides as possible.
FC United is an excellent movement, and surely with people such as McCoist and Gilmour signing up, then it will encourage others to do the same and talk.
In other news, Kemar Roofe will be available to play against Celtic following his decision to remain at the Ibrox side instead of playing for Jamacia.