Within eighteen months, two men who shaped British sport from the touchline and the crease were lost to suicide — Matt Beard, manager of Liverpool Women, and Graham Thorpe, former England cricketer — leaving behind wives, children, and unanswered questions about how institutions care for those who serve them. Now Debbie Beard and Amanda Thorpe, strangers brought together by identical grief, have joined the Royal Foundation to launch a toolkit called On Your Side, determined that the culture of sport must learn to hold its people as carefully as it holds its trophies. Their work is a reckoning
Two widows unite to transform sport's suicide prevention culture
Two deaths by suicide: Matt Beard (Liverpool Women manager) in September 2025 and Graham Thorpe (England cricketer) in 2024, leaving widows and children bereaved.