'Game-changing' suicide prevention charity expands

A national men's mental health and suicide prevention charity marking its 10-year anniversary is expanding further in Devon.

Andy's Man Club, founded in 2016 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, was named after Andy Roberts, who took his own life at the age of 23, and describes itself as a safe space where men can talk about their emotions without being judged.

After opening its first Devon club in Newton Abbot in 2018, there are now 14 clubs in the county. On Monday, the charity is launching a new club in Ivybridge.

Roger Bond, from Plymouth, who went to his first session when he was "in a very dark place" about three years ago, said he had "never looked back".

Suicide Prevention Awareness Week is being observed this week, with organisations across the world helping raise awareness of the support available for people.

Andy's Man Club has more than 350 groups across the UK as well as online sessions.

Men entering the meetings are greeted with a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit.

They are then invited to sit in a circle before answering a series of questions, but there is no pressure to talk, says Roy Wengradt - one of the facilitators at the Four Greens Community Centre session in Plymouth.

Wengradt said he came to his first Andy's Man Club session about five-and-a-half years ago when he was struggling with depression.

He said: "I suppose depression told me that my life wasn't worth living, that everybody else would be better off without me."

After seeking help, Wengradt was pointed towards Andy's Man Club and before his first session, he said he "didn't know what to expect".

"I went along for my first night and I virtually had a breakdown there, but I left feeling a lot lighter and that someone was actually listening," Wengradt said.

Wengradt said Andy's Man Club had "played a huge part" in changing his life for the better.

He said: "It was free, you didn't have to join a waiting list, you didn't have to get referred, you could just walk up.

"It's the same now, you can walk up to any of the venues on a Monday night and they'll welcome you and make you a cup of tea, make you feel welcome.

"There's no pressure, there's no pressure to talk, there's no expectation.

"You could just go along and sit there and just get a feel for it if you wanted to."

He said knowing it was a "safe place" where people would listen.

Men account for the vast majority of suicide deaths, with the male suicide rate at 17.6 per 100,000 people, more than three times the female rate of 5.7 per 100,000, according to statistics from the Office for National Statistics published in October 2025.

Bond, who is now also a facilitator at the Four Greens session in Plymouth, said during the initial session he came to, when it was his turn to talk, "it just flooded out".

"It's just an amazing process that Andy's do and I'll be forever grateful," he added.

"You're a man walking around with all this weight on your shoulders - and you really do feel that weight - and it just flows out of your body.

"It's just one of those, it probably sounds weird to a lot of people, but just being able to share, share it, was enough for me.

"It was a total game-changer."

Free-to-attend sessions, for men over the age of 18, will be held weekly at Peverall Hall at Ivybridge Community College, starting on Monday.

There are Andy's Man Club sessions across Devon on Monday evenings from 19:00 to 21:00.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, information and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

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