Mick Foley On Raising Money in Honor of Daffney, Addressing Mental Health Issues

Mick Foley is continuing to raise money in honor of the late Daffney, and he discussed doing so in a new interview. Foley spoke with Talking Tough and you can see some highlights below, per Wrestling Inc:

Mick Foley on raising money in honor of Daffney: “The young lady I was friends with, Daffney, her real name is Shannon, she struggled for a long time. And she, you know, she went on Instagram live, she was talking about ending her life, and then that next morning, she was dead. And I saw that her mom was asking for people to contribute to NAMI, the Georgia Chapter, and that was the inspiration [for my tour],” he said. “Like I said, I was thinking by the time I start doing them is the 2nd or 8th of September, so I’ve got about 21, 22 shows. If I can raise $200, that would be $4000, but instead, we raised $15,000. So I’m going to try to [incorporate fundraising for Daffney] everywhere I go. On December 5, I’ll pick out a different organization. Last night, I was able to raise $520 for Jimmy Rave, a professional wrestler that lost both his legs to MRSA. He had two amputations, looking at a $100,000 medical bill, so $520 is just a drop in the bucket, but at least Jimmy knows that the wrestling world is thinking of him.”

On the importance of addressing mental health: “[Mental health] is one of the subjects that doesn’t really need to hide in the shadows anymore. So, I think the pandemic opened up a lot of peoples’ eyes about what it is like to struggle. Life was hard before the pandemic began, but now you’ve got people who can’t– you know, we’re supposed to be social beings. And to be away from friends, and family, and feel like nobody is out there for you, just compounded. I knew going in, because of organizations that I’ve worked with, that domestic violence was going to pick up,” Mick explained. “Problems like that were going to be exacerbated because you have, you know, people who may be at odds with each other but they can at least escape the house. But now they’re all– so yeah, it was a tough situation. Loneliness almost became it’s own pandemic, so I think it’s great we’re more willing to talk about mental illness these days.”