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Tony’s story is one of determination and compassion. From starting his football career at just 16 years old with Newcastle United to facing a life-changing cancer diagnosis, his journey has been anything but straightforward.
Today, through his work with P3 Charity, Tony draws on his experiences to support people living with mental ill-health. Alongside delivering educational talks and organising fundraisers, he brings a genuine warmth to everything he does; making a lasting difference to colleagues, local partners and the people he supports.
Tony – known to many by his full name, Anthony Lormor – is a former professional footballer, scoring 102 goals across his 16-year career. Starting his career at Newcastle United as a forward, Tony later moved to Lincoln City, Peterborough United, Chesterfield, Preston North End, Mansfield Town and Hartlepool United.
Tony reflects, “I was a professional footballer; I was involved with Newcastle since I was 12 but I left school at the age of 16 to pursue a full-time career… Football was everything, it was brilliant. I was lucky enough to play with Newcastle at Wembley, everything was really good at the time, and I achieved everything I ever wanted to do.”
As a youth trainee at Newcastle United, Tony made his first debut in 1988, where he stayed until 1990, with a season on loan with Norwich City. In 1990, he made a huge impact at his new club, Lincoln City, being the club’s top goalscorer between 1990–92.
Following his injuries, Tony regained his fitness at Peterborough United before moving to Chesterfield FC to earn them promotion from a Division Three to Division Two club.
“I have no regrets about it, but it doesn’t change the fact that by age 22 I snapped every ligament in my knee, and everything that I knew changed. I had my knee rebuilt and I had to play for a different club, so I faced a few bumps in the road.”
Tony has used the resilience and determination he learnt in football across the rest of his life, through his work, fundraising and personal crisis.
Find out more about Tony’s football career by reading his story with Newcastle United.
Now, Tony is a support worker for P3’s BeWell team, supporting people with mental ill-health to tackle social isolation and get back into their local communities.
Tony says, “I’ve been with P3 for about 18 months now, 12 of them were with the Helpline [P3 Charity’s Mental Health Helpline in partnership with the NHS]. I enjoyed it, but it was a lot. It truly was an eye-opener, both brilliant and tough. But for me, I didn’t seem to get a break from it and one day I just couldn’t do it anymore, so I put my notice in and saw an internal vacancy for this role with the BeWell team. I went for an interview on the Friday; I finished with the Helpline on the Saturday and started here on the Monday.”
Tony explained that while the Helpline is a fantastic resource for local people to call, it takes a lot of resilience to deal with the intensity of the calls. For Tony, following his own personal experiences, he found that talking to people in crisis started to impact his own mental wellbeing. He decided to move to a role where he could continue to make a difference whilst protecting his own mental health.
“My role now is supporting people long-term rather than through crisis. I’m a face-to-face person and I like to see people that way. You can support beyond words, through body language sometimes.”
“My day-to-day [with BeWell] is mainly working from home with visits, but despite this I’ve never had a team so well-knitted and willing to support one another. It was the same with the Helpline, to be fair; I’ve found that’s important at P3.
“I usually start my day by making calls to check in [with the people I’m supporting], and then I usually have to be somewhere by 9. After the meetings with people, the afternoons are about supporting [my team], really.
“At any time, I can say to the team I’m struggling, or I don’t understand how this is working and they’ll be there to help and support me. You’re not on your own; I’ve never felt abandoned or unsupported.
“You can pick the phone up to your managers and your line managers, and at any time they’ll be there. They offer advice and support; it’s good, brilliant even.”
Reflecting on team dynamics and his own life, Tony says that the team have the same goal, to deliver support that makes a real difference to the people they work alongside.
He explains, “You work in this industry because you care, you cannot walk into someone’s house and wing it. The people that we see have been on a mental health journey for 10, 20, 30, 40 years and they need to see that I care. Everyone in this team is genuine, honest and wants to help somebody.”
We then asked Tony if he was drawn to support work for a reason, where he confided that his life changed after leaving his football career; facing alcoholism, grief and his own life-changing cancer diagnosis.
Following his football career, Tony faced a difficult transition out of professional sport, struggling with his mental health and a loss of identity that many athletes experience when their career ends.
“I was a professional footballer; I was involved with Newcastle since I was 12 but I left school at the age of 16 to pursue a full-time career. I did it for 16 years, but the biggest thing that I didn’t realise was the [impact it would have on my] mental health.”
“The next day I was like, that was it! I really, really struggled. It’s a lot different now but back then it was like your contract ended and that was it, no one really spoke to you again really. So, I struggled for a good 10 years with my mental health.”
During this time, Tony used alcohol as a coping mechanism. He explains, “When I left football, I had a massive drinking problem.”
Losing his mum to cancer had a major impact on Tony’s drinking habits. He reflects, “It was horrific. From diagnosis, it took her three years before she died. And in those three years, my drinking was so bad – it cost me two marriages.
“I lost my mum, and my drinking really went out of control. Gradually though, I started to get my life back on track.”
Tony explained that part of his recovery was finding a satisfying job where he felt like he could make a real difference to others. He says, “I eventually got a job I really enjoyed with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust where my role supported young adults with their mental health.
“It was so good and made me realise this was [the industry] I wanted to work in. We covered the Midlands and we would work with young adults on an eight-week programme to get their lives back on track.
“That was a massive turning point for me, I was sharing my experience of what I’d gone through to help and support young people to change things around.
“So, I’m back on track, and then one year after I lost my mum, I got diagnosed myself. I was 42, I’d never been ill, I was fit as a fiddle, so I just went for a check-up. I had a small lump on my neck, so I went to see my doctor and blah blah blah, then I got called back to the hospital.
“I walked into the room, and I just [knew]. There were consultants, doctors, nurses, I could just tell straight away – I got diagnosed with Lymphoma, which is a blood cancer.
“So, there’s no cure for it, but they can manage it through radiotherapy and chemo. So, I had it and it went away quite quickly but over the next seven years it came back five times. So, it was an interesting time. June/July 2019 it came back so aggressively and came back to my stomach.
“I went back to the hospital, and they said that I need to have chemo as soon as possible. I missed my holiday and everything! I didn’t leave hospital until late October; I was having chemo 22 hours a day for six days a week. It wouldn’t keep it under control, so they basically sent me for a stem cell transplant which really is the last roll of the dice. If this doesn’t work, that’s it. So, it didn’t fully work but got me over the line.”
“In December 2019, I left hospital but with only 12 months to live.”
“It was mad, so I cashed all my pensions and had a whale of a time for 12 months with the kids and my Mrs. But then after 12 months, then 14 months and I was still alive but now I’ve run out of money, so I thought about employment.
“So, I started running an online support group for people going through cancer, and they could ring me up to talk about things. I started writing blogs about what I was going through, and then I just did as much as I possibly could really. After Covid, I started running my groups face-to-face and that’s when they took off.”
Tony laughs, “I just kept living!
“I can’t have any more radiotherapy, so if it comes back there is literally nothing that can be done to get rid of it. I’ve lived every day for the last five years on a day-to-day basis.
“I’ve got to a point where I’ve achieved everything I wanted to do, so now I live my life to try and help other people. It started with the cancer groups obviously, but then it took a slightly different course and here I am with P3.”
Since his diagnosis, Tony has spent his life trying to make a real difference to his community. What started with cancer groups and his work in mental health has since transformed into annual fundraisers and public speaking for Lymphoma Action, a trust that raises awareness for the condition.
Tony says, “I’ve done a lot of public speaking, one thing I found was that it helped me as well as other people. I enjoy it, it helps me. I also do some work for a school in Alfreton, I talk about my journey there as well to help inspire young adults in school; to help them realise they can do anything even if they’re told it’s the end – it’s not.
“[With this diagnosis] it’s a different thing every week, I joked the other day that I’m turning into a Netflix documentary!”, ever one for humour, Tony says that “dark humour helps me through it.”
Talking about staying positive, Tony says, “I accepted my fate very early on. I got told there would not be a happy ending, so though I fought it physically, mentally I had to accept where it was going.
“The first time I was diagnosed I wanted to raise money, so I went to the Arctic and did a dog sled and raised some money for the Lymphoma charity which for me was a good thing. It gave me an experience, and it raised money, so it was a win/win.
“So, the second time I got diagnosed I thought I’ll do something else. So, each year for the last seven years I’ve done a challenge.
“Me and my partner have walked Hadrian’s Wall, I’ve cycled around all the football clubs I’ve played for, so it was 430 miles in four days, and I’ve never been on a bike since! Then I did the Great North Run twice, once in Covid and then once with the original route. I hated every second of it, but I did it!
“Most recently I’ve done an Ultra Marathon challenge where I’ve run 48 miles in 48 hours, it was really tough, but I managed to do it. It was also to show this is what you can achieve.
“It’s my family that had to deal with the worst of it; it was easier for me in a way as all I had to do was show up. The families of people going through this need support, there was no real support for my partner, or for my kids and they had to live through it, and I did it partly to raise awareness.”
We asked Tony what advice he would give to people who find themselves just diagnosed with cancer. He says, “The line I took was I turned it into something I knew – in my case, a football match, a challenge – I’m very structured so I knew I needed steps of what I had to do and where I had to be. Give yourself every chance to succeed.”
Tony’s journey is a powerful reminder that even in the face of uncertainty, it is possible to find purpose, support others and continue reaching new goals. Find your purpose, look at our jobs near you by clicking the button below.
