Kicking Up, Reaching Out

The founders of Laceeze, friends Paula Henley and Emma Burke, have had another inspired idea whilst sat at the kitchen table. The idea which was launched on Saturday 4th May by Harry Redknapp and footballer Tyrone Mings, is aimed at raising awareness of mental health in young people. Laceeze as a business provides products to the junior sports market so it’s no surprise that the pair decided to target a campaign aimed at helping, amongst others, their own customer base. The campaign is called #kickupchallenge and is hoping to rival the ice bucket challenge of 2014 which raised over 88 million dollars for its charity ALS. The difference? Not an ice cube in sight, no buckets of water or spare clothes needed. Just a football and your phone to make a £2 donation with. The Laceeze duo have nominated the UK’s leading youth mental health charity YoungMinds to be the beneficiary of the funds raised from the challenge. And as the summer of 2014 helped ALS establish a breakthrough, Paula and Emma hope enough money is raised to make the changes necessary to support an ever growing need for accessible mental health programs for young people. Laceeze have provided footballs to a number of VIP’s taking part in the #kickupchallenge in the hope famous names will sign the balls so they can be auctioned to raise further funds for the charity and Sandown Mercedes have provided a challenge tour car for Paula and Emma to use when having meetings associated with the campaign. It’s turning heads - is it the challenge logo or the 6.3 litre V8 AMG engine responsible? Whatever the reason, attention it is most definitely seeking! Both Paula and Emma are passionate about the campaign and have very personal reasons for getting involved. They see this as ‘work experience’ helping towards them realising their ambitions of setting up their own foundation once the Laceeze brand fully establishes itself but for now they are 2 mum’s reaching out in an attempt to improve the future outcomes of young people and save lives. So do get behind the #kickupchallenge and help make a difference to young peoples mental well-being.