“It all started with just two men in a pub.”
Walk and Blether, a Dundee group aimed at improving men’s mental health, has been registered as a Scottish charity.
Founding member, Valerie Lindsay Roberts said she “had tears in her eyes” when they got the news the application had been accepted.
“This week was just amazing,” she added.
“I’m just so proud of us all. It was 18-months of long hours, creating a 21-page constitution.
“We all felt wonderful.”
Founding member Richie Peter-Tennant added: “I just shouted out: get in!”
But it was not an easy process for the group, created by Valerie, Ritchie, Paul Murphy and Chez Lesley.
“It was a hard process – we had no experience in creating a charity,” Valerie added.
“At some points we thought about giving up.
“We thought ‘If they come back with one more question, we’ll give it a break and try again next year’.
“But something inside us said, you know what? No. You can’t do that when we’re so close. So we just ploughed on.”
In the end, Valerie believes that all the hard work was worth it.
She said: “It’s made us feel like a bigger part of the community – we’re more well known.”
Walk and Blether to offer mental health support in Dundee
Walk and Blether regularly organises walks, aimed at providing emotional and social support.
The idea for the group, started in 2019, came when Ritchie and Paul were in the pub.
“Over a pint, they were saying that’s that bridge closed again for another incident,” Valerie said.
“And they thought we need to do something about this.”
Over the past five years, Dundee had more suicide-related deaths than any other part of Scotland, per head of population.
Of the 805 suicide-related deaths in Scotland last year, more than 70% were men.
Valerie said: “We were originally set up as a mental health awareness group for men.
“We now say, post-Covid, mental health for all.”
She continued: “Although people might have not had Covid, they’re still isolating, having not seen people for god knows how long and their mental health is in a bad way.
“Physically, people are being sorted. But mentally, they are not.”
Valerie said that she found people were able to open up more while they were moving around.
She added: “If we can stop just one person from going to that bridge, we feel like we’ve got the job done.”
The group hope to expand into other community events that will bring people together.
On April 9 the hope to host a race night. While later this year, the group will be holding a fancy dress festival.
If you’d like to find out more about Walk and Blether, you can get in touch here.
