Headway Pembrokeshire, the brain injury association, is urging sporting clubs in our county to get involved and sign up everyone to be Concussion Aware.

With the controversial incident relating to Northampton RFC’s management of George North’s concussion on the field of play, the organisation Headway Pembrokeshire, is a local charity who supports people affected by brain injury.

Sport forms an integral part of any community and plays an important role in keeping children fit and healthy. However, even when all safety regulations are followed, accidents can happen – often resulting in head injuries or concussions.

Headway Pembrokeshire Secretary, Matthew Owen said: “We want to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy sport, while being better protected from the risks of concussion.

“We are asking all sports clubs, schools and colleges to sign up to our new Concussion Aware Campaign and take an ‘if in doubt, sit it out!’ approach to head injuries.”

At grassroots level who are playing purely for the love of it and do not have ambulance and doctors on standby should anything go wrong.

Key facts about brain injury. Acquired brain injury (ABI) is an umbrella term for any injury to the brain sustained since birth, excluding neurodegenerative conditions. The most common forms of ABI are traumatic injury (TBI) and stroke. Other causes include brain tumour, meningitis, aneurysm, haemorrhage, encephalitis, anoxia, and other conditions. ABI admissions in the UK increased by 10% between 2005/6 and 2013/14. There are approximately 956 ABI admissions per day in UK hospitals in 2013/14 – or one every 90 seconds. Men are 1.6 times more likely than women to be admitted for head injury. However women head injury admissions has risen 24% since 2005/6. In 2013/14 there were 130,551 UK admissions for stroke, which is an increase of 9% since 2005/6 and equates to one in every four minutes.

The organisation encourages all readers who love playing sport to show they are Concussion Aware by pledging their support at www.concussionaware.org.uk or contacting us at headwaypembrokeshire@hotmail.co.uk.

For further information attend Headway Pembrokeshire social meetings that are held on the second Thursday of every month at The Mind Centre, Quay Street, Haverfordwest, at 6.30pm.