Micah Richards responds to criticism after pledging £50k to mental health charities

Some people will find a reason to be angry at anything.

Micah Richards has been bombarded with criticism after pledging to donate £50,000 to mental health charities after a second national lockdown was announced. "Lockdown 2 is gonna cause more deaths through depression, loneliness and financial stress," Richards tweeted. "Leeds and Manchester have been nothing but great to me growing up so I’m gonna donate 50k! 25k each to two different charities/businesses in the two areas which I feel need it the most!" https://twitter.com/MicahRichards/status/1322654641197297668 What a generous man, you might think. It's lovely to see someone who has been through a lot as a player donate a large sum of money to various charities to help much less well off people at a bleak time that will see many go through increased stress, you might say. And you'd be right to, of course. Not everyone thinks like that, though. Apparently, cynicism is at an all time high and pledging to donate money to charity can provoke the worst people on Twitter to send abuse, rather than support.

One Twitter user responded by saying: "Just do it rather than telling the world about it." "Great but Just do it don’t post it out so you get attention!" another soul replied.

Richards then sent a follow up tweet, saying: "What world do we live in when you offer 50k to a charity gets turned into a negative. I have no agent no pr company no agenda. I tweeted it so charities can get in touch. Those who think it’s a publicity thing are an embarrassment. Deary Deary me!!!" https://twitter.com/MicahRichards/status/1322819813899644928 It's worth noting the former Manchester City and Aston Villa defender also received a lot of warm support, with Sky Sports colleague Kelly Cates replying: "Bloody hell Micah" followed by a heart and an applause emoji. Villa legend Stylian Petrov also said: "Well done Micah, you always had a big heart. Amazing to see you still have your smile every day and striving to help others. World full with so much fear and uncertainty needs people like you." Hear, hear, Stylian.

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