Community Stories: Day 5 – Rob Duncan

With Community Day coming up this Saturday, we’re spotlighting a new participant of our community programmes every day this week to highlight some of the vital work that NTFC Community Trust do across Northamptonshire. 

Today we hear from Rob Duncan. Rob signed up for our Fit Cobblers programme and saw his health improve on a number of levels. Rob spoke about the learning that he took from the programme and how his health has been improved since. 

Rob said, of the course, 

“The sessions were basically split into two sessions. So you'd have an hour where we would be sitting down looking on the food side of things and what's good for you with regards to alcohol or food types and those sorts of things to avoid or things to try and swap out. Things like instead of eating normal rice go with brown rice, no brown bread, that sort of thing. And then looking at the plates and what you put on your plate and getting the proportions right and the portions right as well” 

“The thing that Mark and Tom (the course leaders) said was, we're not going to say to go and sign up to a gym. All they would say is make small changes and make it become part of your lifestyle. And that really resonated with me because if it had been a case of, we recommend that you go to the gym and you weigh out all your food and you only do this,I probably wouldn't have come back, but it was completely different because those are the of things I've done before and tried to lose weight that way.” 

To hear more about Rob’s story, check out the podcast at the link below. 

Link to episode: https://podfollow.com/cobblerstome/episode/0f46fb658a4af30da94af69774f856c27b9cd37d/view  

For more information on NTFC Community Trust, visit ntfccommunity.co.uk and to get involved in fundraising for the charity this year, contact Fundraising and Events Manager Danny Brothers at danny.brothers@ntfc.co.uk 

Donation link: NTFC Community Trust - 25 for 25! - JustGiving 

A big thank you to every participant who joined us this week – don't forget to come and join in with Community Day on Saturday and then cheer the Cobblers on against Burton! 

Community Stories: Day 4 – Madi Evans

With Community Day coming up this Saturday, we’re spotlighting a new participant of our community programmes every day this week to highlight some of the vital work that NTFC Community Trust do across Northamptonshire. 

Today we hear from NTFC Women Development team captain Madi Evans. Madi has come through the age groups with the NTFC Football and Education Partnership (FEP) and spoke to the It’s All Cobblers To Me podcast about her journey. 

Madi said, 

“(The FEP) gives players an extra edge to achieve their goals in football because training twice a week with games weekly, it means you get a lot of time on the ball and the coaches will also be there to support to help you improve. And I think everyone in the college can say that they've improved a lot from when they started to now. And the educational side of it, they cover many different areas like fitness training, which will help our performance.” 

"But my personal favourite thing was coaching as I'd get to go out to a team and practically deliver my own session plans. And that gave me experience of what it's like to be in the coach's position, which opened opportunities for me as going on to be a coach. But the programme has been excellent. The coaches and tutors give you the support you need to succeed as long as you work hard and you're willing to put the effort in there's no reason why you can't get what way you want to be in life.” 

“Through coaching placements, I've been able to be more confident and communicate better with players as I've had to adapt my communication style from coaching under 16s to then going to do under 10s and 12s, which doesn't seem like a big gap, but it makes a big difference in how you talk to them. On the pitch, I'm a lot louder than I used to be with more confidence in my ability to play instead of trying to kick the ball away. soon as I get it, I've learnt to look after it and be calm.” 

A big thanks to Madi!

Link to episode: https://podfollow.com/cobblerstome/episode/52d01f14cdd7baf540f80225eb5629e5200e3f1a/view  

For more information on NTFC Community Trust, visit ntfccommunity.co.uk and to get involved in fundraising for the charity this year, contact Fundraising and Events Manager Danny Brothers at danny.brothers@ntfc.co.uk 

Donation link: NTFC Community Trust - 25 for 25! - JustGiving 

Community Stories: Day 3 - Mark Seymour

To celebrate 25 years of the NTFC Community Trust, ahead of Saturday’s Community Day at Sixfields we have a special week of episodes.

Today Danny is joined by Mark Seymour. Mark has been a part of a number of Community Trust programmes over the years from health and wellbeing, inclusion, multi disability and education around the county for over 10 years now. Mark is also a founding member of the Claret Mountaineers, a group that’s helped to raise over £33,000 over the last five years and has coached over 200 children at the multi-disability football club and NTFC Soccer Schools.

Mark talks about his time working with the charity and tells us all about this year’s Claret Mountaineers walk that takes place in June.

Link to episode: https://podfollow.com/cobblerstome/episode/3b5114e019e6ee3f3f46e6843cf462e63298c5c7/view

To sponsor the team on the walk, visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/claretmountaineers2026 

To get in touch about fundraising events and challenges, email Danny at danny.brothers@ntfc.co.uk 

Community Stories: Day 2 – Simon Anderson

With Community Day coming up this Saturday, we’re spotlighting a new participant of our community programmes every day this week to highlight some of the vital work that NTFC Community Trust do across Northamptonshire. 

Today, we hear from Simon Anderson, the headteacher of Irchester Community Primary School, a partner school of the Community Trust. Simon talks about the impact that having a mentor in his school has had and the ongoing relationship between them and the charity. He told the It’s All Cobblers To Me podcast, 

“The Community Trust was based at the school prior to me being at the school. I've been at the  school three years, but the Community Trust was working with the school before that. So 2021 was when the school first engaged with the Community Trust and we had a learning mentor in school for a day or two a week, first and foremost. That staff member, Rhys Barnes, was the original person. He was in and he was covering PPA sessions for teachers.” 

“When I arrived, we changed the way we utilise that mentor. So we very much thought about the process of using the mentor for supporting children's mental health and wellbeing through sport...It became more of an intervention based role rather than whole class stuff.” 

“Patrick (the current mentor) runs sport-based mental health interventions for us. So any child that might need a bit more bespoke wellbeing work, he does one to one groups with them, one to one sessions with them. He does meet and greets for us. So some children struggle to come in in the mornings now and again. So he's available to do those meet and greets and just settle them into the day. And it just really helps for some children to have that bond with someone that's not a teacher and that we find that that bond is a different bond. The teacher bond is obviously there and it's a professional relationship but for Patrick it's more of that he can create those relationships and get a little bit deeper with those children.” 

To hear more about the partnerships that NTFC Community Trust can offer to schools, check out Simon’s podcast episode. 

Link to episode: https://podfollow.com/cobblerstome/episode/5d1d272e2dbb507d5c39ea8cdbbd599a941a5dbf/view  

Come back tomorrow for more from NTFC Community Trust and don’t forget this Saturday is Community Day at Sixfields, where you’ll be able to learn so much more about the work of the charity as they celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2026.