Famous world snooker player Joe Perry helped a club raise thousands of pounds for a mental health charity in honour of a member who took his own life.

%image(15301067, type="article-full", alt="Professional player and world number 21 "The Gentleman" Joe Perry was at the tornament, taking on challengers. He played Mr Daniels in May 2017 and came along to show his support for the mental helath charity MIND. Picture: ALAN RANDALL")

Craig Daniels was 28 when he died on July 4, 2018 - and his friends at Felixstowe Snooker Club decided to organise a tournament in his memory.

What began as an eight-man afternoon of snooker quickly snowballed into the 60-strong tournament on Sunday, November 25, with players coming from clubs across Suffolk to raise money for Suffolk Mind.

The tournament opened with a speech from Mr Daniels’ mother, Wendy Wright, who thanked everyone who took the time to come along and encouraged the players to open up about their mental health.

Speaking afterwards, Mrs Wright said: “It was amazing, I had no idea Craig was so popular.

“Everyone took the time to speak to me and had a story or such love to share about him, I can’t thank everyone enough for such an emotional day.

“If we can save anyone then the tragedy of my son’s death will be worth it. I just want to see Suffolk Mind on the map.”

Organiser Alan Randall said: “It was an incredible day and a great atmosphere - full of fun and emotion, a lot of laughs and nothing too serious.

“We wanted to raise the profile of men’s mental health and get people talking.

“We aimed to raise £2,000 - we’ve just hit £2,047 with more to count so we are over the moon,”

Also in attendance was world number 21 snooker player Joe Perry, who took on challengers, gave out advice and presented the winner of an auction with a cue signed by all 2017 Masters competitors, raising £660 alone.

Mr Perry managed a break of 139 - but Mr Randall was more impressed with the time and effort he put into being part of the day and remembering Mr Daniels.

He added: “With Joe here, we made sure Craig was remembered in a positive way.

“People in that room were not afraid to speak about mental health and that has to be a positive to come from this.”

Speaking on the day, Mr Perry said: “I fully support the cause today. It was wonderful to see an event in aid of the charity and a fitting way to remember Craig.”

The competition was won by Paul Sparrow who picked up the Craig Daniels memorial trophy, beating Mark Hardy in the final.

The club are still collecting the last of their donations for Suffolk Mind until Saturday, December 1.

If you would like to donate to the cause, The Craig Daniels Memorial Snooker Tournament page on the website is active until December 1 too.