The speaker recounts their lifelong connection to the Crystal Palace football club, starting with a humorous anecdote from their birth. They describe the childhood rituals of attending games, the sense of community they found among fellow fans, and how, as they grew older, football became a vital space for emotional release and an escape from their worries for 90 minutes.
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"I can't think of anywhere else that you'd be able to get that feeling of jumping in each other's arms and screaming in a stranger's face!" – Chloe's View From A Bridge @chloepetts
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For this year's World Mental Health Day, we’ve partnered with @skysports and @mentalhealthfoundation to share stories from across football about the importance of looking after your mental health. We’re proud to share Chloe’s story exploring the vital role that community and connection in football can play in supporting mental wellbeing. If Chloe’s story resonates with you, please visit the Sky Sports or Mental Health Foundation website for more information about the campaign and resources to help guide your next steps - or support the charity with a donation - Thanks!
Transcript
When I was born, I was born during the football scores. And the first thing that I did was I was swaddled in a crystal palace towel, and I did a huge into it, which sort of served as like a fecal prophecy for the fortunes of my club for many years. And when I was about five or six, we got a season ticket to Palace, and it was like the best day. Every Saturday, we'd drive to the ground and then we'd walk over as a four, and we got to go to the newsagents and pick out a couple of sweets. We'd sit rank we'd read the program, and we'd watch all, like, the pre match stuff, and I just loved it. And I don't know. I guess I found this sense of community where it was just really cool that because everyone was wearing the same color shirt, we all had this thing in common, and we just wanted to be there. And then as I got older, football started becoming like this different space for me where I would go and all my worries would just go out of the window for that 90. You shout and you shout and you shout and you get all of these big feelings out, and it just got everything out of my system. You know?
