A few months ago, I walked into Andy’s Man Club for the first time. No real idea what to expect. Just… went.
A couple of months after that, I was invited to become a facilitator. Which, honestly, I didn’t see coming.
So we got our local group set up in Louth, Lincolnshire. A couple of us turned up, got the chairs out, and started. Six or seven blokes each week, sometimes new faces, sometimes the same ones coming back. Some talking. Some just sitting there quietly, which is fine. Nobody’s forced to perform.
The age range has surprised me a bit. We’ve got lads of 19 sitting in the same room as guys well into their sixties. You wouldn’t think those two ends of life would have much in common, but apparently the need to just say things out loud without being judged doesn’t really care how old you are.
The venue’s nothing special. It does the job. We’ve got a room, we’ve got chairs, and it’s free. That’s the basics covered.
What has surprised me is how fast word spread. We put up a few banners, got a bit of support to announce the opening, and people just… showed up. It tells you something, that. Men don’t exactly have a long list of places they can go and talk openly without it being weird or without feeling like they have to justify themselves. When you give them somewhere, they come.
And that matters. Particularly when some of those guys wouldn’t have driven 20 miles to another town to find a group, which is what some of us were doing before Louth got started.
I’m glad I walked through that door the first time. And I’m glad other blokes are now walking through ours.
I’ll be honest, it’s not all straightforward. There are things about running a group like this that I’m still getting my head round. Stuff I’m not sure we’re handling quite right. I’ll get into that another time, but it felt wrong not to mention it.
If you’re a man in Lincolnshire and this sounds like something you need, or something you’re curious about, Andy’s Man Club meets weekly. You don’t have to say a word. You just have to show up.