I am now 30 years old and throughout my life its always been apparent that i'm a bit different to others and that my brain works in a different way to most people's.

School was a time i'd rather forget - my teenage years and 20's were spent with me trying to forge a path forward through deep unhappiness - attempting to fit in but never succeeding and trying to act in a way that others considered socially acceptable but being completely lost where nobody understood me and I was unable to understand others, I never had a diagnosis or solution and did not even know what was "wrong" with me. Co existing with others has proven impossible, Friendships were difficult to maintain and relationships non existant.

Naturally this led to depression, anxiety and repeated mental breakdowns where I have lost my job after becoming unable to function and then unable to work or even leave the house for long periods of time. My weight balooned to nearly 30 stone and I was ready to end it, however I was convinced to make one last push to "sort myself out" find out what was "wrong" with me and try to find some form of happiness.

I begun my turnaround project in December 2017 and while the mental health support from the NHS has been non existant in that time, I did get a diagnosis for Sleep apnea which had gone undiagnosed for many years and starting cpap treatment gave me the energy to begin my weightloss journey and finally discover the true nature of the issues I had been facing.

To say that awareness around Autism and Aspergers is still an issue is an understatement, personally i'd only ever heard others use it as an insult and had zero understanding of what the condition actually was. I did a lot of research on lots of different conditions trying to find out what my troubles were down to and finally it hit me that what I had been experiencing my whole life was actually Aspergers and all of the things I could not explain previously suddenly made sense. All along the signs were there from difficulties with my birth to sensory issues and several other things but none of them were ever picked up. I was referred for diagnosis around June/July time in 2018 and I am still waiting on an extremely long waiting list which I believe is 18+ months.

During the wait time I have had zero support from the health service, but that hasn't stopped me from pushing forward with trying to turn my life around by losing the weight and since December 2017 I have now gone from 29 stone 4 down to under 16 stone. I still have a long way to go in repairing my mental health, finding a way of building a career where I can avoid breaking down repeatedly and learning to build & maintain friendships better but finally I have a small light at the end of the tunnel which has been so dark for so long.

Starting to play football again was my saving grace & I can safely say that without football I do not believe I would still be here today and certainly wouldn't have been able to lose 13 and a half stone! Those involved in the football match have been heavily involved in my journey over the last 20 odd months some just by being in opposition, some of them teammates who have encouraged me and others that have inspired me to work harder to improve as a player by running rings around me at times! I was lucky to find a group of men where everybody is there to enjoy a game of football without judging others and lots of the other men there have also lost a lot of weight.

I hope that by raising some much needed money for the charity, somebody else somewhere can avoid some of the issues i've gone through. Please consider donating generously to the cause if you can afford it

There will be fundraising on matchday and every player playing the match will be donating £10 to the charity to take part to help cover the pitch hire fee and the referee hire fee as well as adding to the pot of money raised for the charity.

If any local businesses are interested in sponsorships on the match day you can contact me at michaellefranc89@gmail.com. Anybody willing to sponsor a matchday kit for the teams is also welcome to contact me!

Hopefully the weather is kind to us on the day and we have lots of spectators there to enjoy a great game of football in which a lot of money is raised for a great cause!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.