Losing a child is among the most devastating experiences a person can go through. For many fathers, it can also be profoundly isolating — grief that is real and enormous, but that men often find difficult to express or share openly.
Sean Coleman, a father from Stoke-on-Trent in England knew that feeling well. After losing his own baby, he wanted to create a space where men who had been through the same thing could come together, not necessarily to talk about their grief in a formal setting, but to do something simple and human side by side. In September 2025, he founded Forget-Me-Not FC.
The club, based in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, is open only to fathers who have lost a child. Every player carries that experience. For member Aaron Way, who lost his daughter Willow, the mission of the club is simple: to give men somewhere safe to be honest, to be with people who understand, and to play football.
There are no trophies on offer, no league table. What the club offers is something more lasting — a shared language between people who have been through the same loss, expressed through the familiar rhythm of a game rather than a therapy session.
The attention the club has received since its founding has encouraged the team to think bigger. They now hope to help create more Forget-Me-Not clubs across the UK, so that more grieving fathers can find what they have found in each other.