Men's mental health support group plans expansion

A men's mental health support group wants to reach out and help more people in 2025 as it prepares to launch its latest branch.

Andy's Man Club will start a weekly meet-up at Conisbrough Community Library in Doncaster from 27 January, its fifteenth group in a county that has some of the charity's highest attendance rates nationally.

The organisation's area lead for South Yorkshire, Simon Mayo, said he wanted to open "at least" another eight groups "to raise awareness" of the support available for men.

"I won't stop until I can get every guy that's struggling through the door," he said.

Simon, who lives in Barnsley, said he discovered Andy's Man Club, a peer-to-peer support group for men, through social media four years ago when he was "going through a bit of a storm".

"If it wasn't for those guys that walked me in for the first time I probably wouldn't be on this earth," he added.

"I found my brothers. It's like my happy place."

The 48-year-old has since left his career in car sales to work for the suicide prevention charity, which started in Halifax in 2016.

More than 3,000 men now attend an Andy's Man Club meet-up at locations across the UK every week, according to figures on its website.

Simon put the charity's growth down to men being able to relate to each other and added: "There is still a stigma, however it's slowly being broken as guys now aren't afraid to say 'I have got a mental health issue'."

Later this month Andy's Man Club will have five branches in Doncaster, as well as four in Rotherham and three in both Barnsley and Sheffield, where Simon is focusing his efforts on expansion this year.

Simon said the organisation's South Yorkshire groups were attended more than 16,000 times in 2024, with its group in Manvers among the most well-attended in the country.

He admitted it was "always daunting" walking through the doors for the first time, but new faces would "always be welcomed".

"Somebody will be there to make you a brew, give you a biscuit, and probably put an arm around you.

"It's just a matter of opening it up and getting some stuff off your chest instead of bottling it up."

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