WHEN it comes to supporting good causes, Selkirk Rugby Club is proud that its players wear their hearts on their sleeves.

This is particularly true in the current season, since the club is featuring the ‘Tiny Changes’ organisation’s official logo on the right sleeve of the 1st XV’s new playing strip.

Tiny Changes was set up in 2020 by Marion, Ron, Neil and Grant Hutchison, with the aim of improving mental health services and support for young people.

Marion and Ron’s son Scott, best known as the lead singer and songwriter in the band Frightened Rabbit, took his own life in May 2018, at the age of 36. The words ‘tiny changes’ featured in one of the group’s songs.

On Saturday, prior to Selkirk’s game against Edinburgh Accies, Scott’s brother Neil, chair of Tiny Changes, was presented by skipper Ewan MacDougall with one of the new Selkirk jerseys.

“We’re a children and young people’s mental health charity,” Neil told the selkirkrfc.com website, “and we support projects in Scotland that are doing positive things for these groups’ mental health and wellbeing.

“The response from the public has been overwhelming, initially from Frightened Rabbit fans who knew and loved Scott, but it’s now gone beyond that and the wider public in Scotland have really taken to it.

“I think mental health in Scotland is such an important subject, before the pandemic but of course even more so now. At Tiny Changes we believe it’s the right of every child to have good mental health and the opportunity to lead happy and fulfilled lives as adults.”

Neil, who was born and raised in Selkirk, said he was delighted with the rugby club’s gesture. “I played for Selkirk Youth Club many years ago, and I was very proud when the rugby club got in touch with us and said they’d like to raise awareness of these mental health issues.

“Having our logo on the sleeve of Selkirk’s playing jerseys has made everyone at Tiny Changes super-proud,” added Neil.

Selkirk Rugby Club vice-president David Anderson said the club was very aware of the mental health issues that can affect young people.

“We were one of the first rugby clubs in Scotland to appoint a mental health officer,” said David, “and since his appointment, Ruaraidh MacKessack-Leitch – a Selkirk player and a qualified doctor – has been doing a tremendous job for us.

“We are also working closely with the Harris Trust, a charity set up in memory of former Selkirk rugby player Harris Macdonell, who tragically died in August, 2020.”

On its website, Tiny Changes has this message for its supporters: ‘Together, we are making a difference. Together, we’ll make tiny changes to earth’.

Selkirk Rugby Club fully endorses this sentiment, just as surely as its players will continue to wear their hearts on their sleeves.