The latest Rugby League Cares newsletter is now available for members and you can get a look at the bottom of this news story as State of Mind are featured in this edition on the welfare page

The work of Rugby League Cares has three main goals. It helps ‘Our Heroes’ – the phenomenal work of the Rugby League Benevolent Fund will come under the umbrella of RL Cares. It will continue to provide support, both financial and social, to those who suffer life-changing injuries or find themselves in hardship. The ambassador for Our Heroes is Pete Stephenson, who broke his neck in a accident playing for amateur side Hull Dockers.

Doctors told him he would never walk again. But he proved them wrong. He said, “When an accident like that happens you don’t know where to turn. Having the Benevolent Fund people there was invaluable. They were there from day one with help and support. They provided finance for my family to come and see me in Pinderfields hospital at Wakefield. They helped with my rehab, advised me and supported me to go to University to learn a new skill so I could get back to work.

Rugby League Cares sponsors the GB All Stars Rugby League team who played against the Army Veterans Rugby League before their recent game at Halifax and you can see the GB shirt with the RL Cares logo emblazoned on the front

Army RL Halifax 1

It protects ‘Our Heritage’ – keeping safe the game’s history by looking after the official RFL archive and
providing funds to help keep together some amazing collections. (Exciting plans to put Rugby League’s history
on public display will be announced later this year) It also helps support the many Past Players Associations and will create a new central Past Players association.

The ambassador for Our Heritage is Ray French, respected journalist, broadcaster and former player. “There’s a terrific history in the game and protecting it is vital,” he acknowledged. “Now, because of RL Cares, we all have a chance to help make sure that future generations can enjoy and appreciate some of the great deeds of yesteryear. It will also keep a lot more of our favourite players from years gone by involved in our game,
as well as giving RL Cares members more chance to meet some of their heroes.”

RL Cares looks to the future and ‘Our Hopes’ – it encourages great projects that give more people the chance
to play the game. If someone wants to champion Rugby League but can’t because of social, geographical or
economic reasons, we’ll support those champions to make it happen. The Ambassador for Our Hopes is England and Leeds captain, Kevin Sinfield. Army Vets RL Halifax

He commented, “In a World Cup year we have a fantastic opportunity to leave a legacy that involves more people than ever playing Rugby League. By supporting Rugby League Cares we can all help turn the inevitable growing interest in our game into more and more people of all ages and backgrounds getting involved.”

To access the autumn newsletter please click on the link below

www.rugbyleaguecares.org/_uploads/_Small_RL%20Cares%20Newsletter_Autumn%202013.pdf