History
21st Feb 2022
The Niall Stringer foundation group was created on Facebook by Stefano Aylott, who was Niall’s rugby coach, a forum to look after each other and to remember our beloved Niall.
When the news spread around the rugby world about Niall’s death all Rugby clubs around the country held a 2 minute silence at their various games.
A decision was made by OBRFC and family/friends to hold a NS10 memorial day on the 1st May. NS being Niall’s initials and No 10 (a fly high) is the number he wore for OBRFC.
19th March 2022
Rugby stars and celebrities helped spread the word about May 1st and Stefano Aylott was interviewed on Phoenix radio 98fm to promote the charity on the station and advertise the Memorial day.
Elly Cole of Zatyka & Cole prepared to create keyrings and bracelets to sell at the Memorial Day and donate 50% of sales to NS10
https://www.zatykaandcole.co.uk/collections/ns10
Billericay RFC have supported the cause throughout with help yourself to a meal for a £5.00 donation.
Fabulous items were being sent in by various artists (all professions) and rugby players to auction.
Olivia Hession from Thundersley school raised £53.00 by selling cakes she had made (picture below)
Christy McCann of Jageto Embroidery and print produced pink NS10 tshirts for 1st May selling at £25 and £5.00 of sales would be donated to the cause.
1st May 2022
There were 2 rugby matches that took place on the Memorial Day a senior game taking part was Old Brentwood v Seasiders and Niall’s Old Brentwood team v Barbarians.
Gary Christopher, Chairman of OBRFC designed and organised the kit for the game and Rob Jupp, President of OBRFC organising the sponsorship @MTFinance the Barbarians kit and @Westoneloans and ENRA for sponsoring the OBRFC club Colts kit.
Premiership referee Christophe Ridley refereed the Colts game and Jackson Wray also attended the day to support the event.
A selection of brilliant items were being sent in by various artists and rugby players to auction. There were side stalls that also contributed donations from their sales one of those included £522 for the sale of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that they had donated and sold by Ruth Ellie on the day.
Sumo Crew Catering did the cooking on the day which was very successful. We did a Niall special roll which went down a storm it consisted of steak bacon mushroom and onion. Donation from the profits was made to the Foundation.
The Memorial Day was a great success with a total amount of £30,000 being raised from the memorial game, raffles, auction and side stalls.
April 20th 2023
The Niall Stringer Foundation was officially registered as a charity. Charity number 1202781. 6 Trustees were appointed.
A big thank you went to Mark Elliot, who is one of the Trustees. He worked very hard to get the Foundation status to where it is today
SANE, who are a mental health charity working to improve quality of life for people affected by mental illness, became one of our methods of support.
The Foundation also have 3 patrons on board and we are privileged and honoured that Christophe Ridley, Jackson Wray and Heather Small have agreed to be our patrons.
The Trustees were invited to Jackson Wray’s testimonial dinner and £18,000 was donated from the evening.
Stefano Aylott did a NO JOKE APRIL. Stef who is always telling Jokes had promised not to tell any jokes for the month if he received sponsors. He successfully did this and raised £1,830.
On a positive note it came to our notice that the Niall Stringer Foundation has hellped a young lad struggling with his mental health.
16th May 2023
It was agreed to donate £10,000 to the charity SANE and because it was Mental Health Awareness Week the donation was doubled to £20,000 to directly help people. SANE do brilliant work and ther Foundation is very happy to work with them.
14th June 2023
Niall Stringer Foundation course: Introduction to Mental Health and well being conversations. The course was presented and delivered to OBRFC by Matt Mason who is a Mental Health First Aid instructor and Mental Health Wellbeing Consultant.
Danny Phillips, (Coach) generously paid for the sponsorship of the NS10 logo which will be put on the sleeve of every OBRFC player for the new ‘one club kit’.
Billericay RFC had a charity match Billericay RFC Cricketers took on St Johns cricket club and raised (TBC) for the Niall Stringer Foundation
Keri Williams (friend of the Stringer family) raised £600 doing a massive 10 hours, 154 mile bike ride in one day (picture below)
Celebrate Gymnastics have been wearing pink for the week with £1.00 each gymnast donation going to the Foundation. (picture below)
James Savage (referee) at OBRFC raised £500 in a charity cricket match.
2nd September 2023
Mel, Phil, Charlie, Madison, Calum, Sue, Donna and James did a 5k walk up and down Southend Pier, they sprayed their hair pink and wore the NS10 pink tshirts. They raised £1,080. (Pic below)
There was a charity match at Old Brentwood RFC on this day too
INVITATIONAL ALL STARS v OBRFC XV
NS10 was donated a dog (picture below) and was asked to name and design the coat. Niall’s dog was called Stanley so that was the choice of the Stringer family. Niall’s younger brother designed the coat which makes him the youngest artist designer to do this and which he is very proud of.
28th October 2023
Dan Savage (Coach) did a 25 mile walk from Southend Pier to Old Brentwood RFC. His timing was 9 hrs 37 mins 40secs and he raised £3,225. He was accompanied by work colleagues.
11th January 2024
Ventrica (this is a company who Niall’s eldest brother works for) raised over £4,000 for the Foundation. The company chose to raise funds for a charity close to their hearts. They did this from huge raffle of prizes gifted to Ventrica by their clients and their staff also gave generously not only donating far more than the price of the raffle tickets but many staff rerouted the value of their own Christmas gift token from the company to the overall total.
Week beginning 22nd January 2024-26th January inclusive
Matt Mason will be running Mental Health Awareness courses to 3 rugby clubs Old Brentwood, Braintree and Billericay. The course will be started with an introduction to mental awareness (1 day course). Each club can have up to 100 people after which the club will choose 2 members to attend the main course, to be held on the 25th and 26th. At the end of the course each club will have 2 dedicated mental health awareness first aiders.
