“Hi I am Martin, and a walk leader for the Penrith MWAT.”

I joined the Sandbach MWAT when it first started in Autumn 2024, and found that the simple act of meeting up with a group of gents, walking and talking for an hour each week benefited us all. I had been recommended by a friend to join, and so glad I did. I saw they were all over facebook promoting themselves and thought it was right up my street as is a more “casual” way to chat and get to know people than other mental health groups out there. No pressure to talk about anything specific, you can just talk about last weeks football, or what you did at the weekend, or just enjoy the walk. The support and encouragement from the guys is invaluable.

I have had a number of mild mental health issues over the years, and just the act of walking and talking with a group of guys from different backgrounds and having a range of different issues proved massively helpful to us all. I have tried counsellors in the past, but in a way this works so much better, and they are real people, some who become real friends!

I made a big life change in mid 2025, moving up to Cumbria, and was pleased to find a MWAT group in Penrith. If there wasn’t one, I think I would have started one myself. Chris, who originally started the Penrith group asked if I would consider taking over the group to help it grow as he couldn’t continue with it. I was more than happy to take what I had learnt from the guys in Sandbach and apply it here.

I hope to grow the Penrith group, promote it, and help more guys benefit from what MWAT can give. This will be a new challenge, stepping up to lead a group. I hope it will continue to help me and many other men in the Penrith area, and will be proud to be an ambassador for MWAT!