I love a drink (far too much) and I love a drink at the football. 

I am the kitman at Heaton Stan, where I am known as much for my clean, lemon fresh kits as I am for ability to knock them back on a matchday, or any day, for that matter.

This challenge will see me go teetotal from The Stan's first game of the season on 29 July 2022, until their last game on 22 April 2023. 

268 days with no alcohol whatsoever. Through a few holidays, a World Cup and Christmas. 

I've needed to reduce the booze for a while for all sorts of reasons; mental health, physical health, weight gain etc.

This will be very tough for me. A conservative estimate of my drinking since the start of the pandemic is between 35-45 pints or cans of beer a week. That is about 8,000 calories, every single week, causing me to gain about 2.5 stone. 

I've also been on antidepressants since the start of the pandemic and in June 2022, I decided that I am ready to come off them. Part of the reason for giving the drink up is to stay steady as I get back to living without that crutch. 

I have to do this for myself and if I am going to do it, I may as well raise as much as I can for a great cause which is very close to The Stan, where I have volunteered since 2020, becoming a huge part of my life and something I love being involved in. 

In a bid to calm the treasurer down, I have also pledged to buy one round of drinks a week, at random, for whoever is at the front of the bar queue whenever I've finished sorting the dirty shorts and socks.

CHUF appears on the back of our home shirts, so as the kitman it seemed the perfect charity to raise money for. CHUF stands for the Children's Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle which is next door to The Stan's ground, Grounsell Park. 

Oddly when I first started working as a local journalist in 2012, CHUF faced closure as part of a funding cut, it was the first story I was ever sent on. I waited with the families of the children receiving treatment there as they waited to find out if their lives would be turned upside down with the unit closing and them being sent to Leeds. It has always stuck with me.

Here's a bit more about CHUF and what they do: 

CHUF's mission is to make life better for children and young people who are born with or who develop heart conditions by providing lifelong support to them and their families. CHUF supports children and families who receive treatment at the Children’s Heart Unit based at the Freeman Hospital and the many other hospitals providing care for cardiac patients throughout the North of England.