Support towards providing safe & free spaces for men

Hi, my name is Leigh and I'm a facilitator for Mandem Meetup Wolves.

Mandem meetup is actively working in the communities of Manchester and Wolverhampton to break the stigma around men's mental health. We host a wide range of activities such as talking circles, both indoor and outdoor hikes all over the country, football sessions, poetry sessions, photography classes, we do a 24 hour rough sleepout every year in both cities to raise awareness on homelessness, we do homeless outreaches in both cities where we give back donations kindly given to us by people from the community, workout programs which include boxing and functional work. Alongside this we do a lot of working inwards which includes, breath work, meditation, cold plunging and also the sauna.

Our aim is break the stigma around men's mental health and keep offering free activitys to the men of our communitys, so they have safe spaces to come along and share their emotions, highs, lows, wins and losses and be apart of the a brotherhood who are all working on becoming better men. We have seen and felt the full impact of the pressures of men's mental health with having lost 2 brothers in as many years to suicide.

Figures -

We are operating in 2 cities, Manchester and Wolverhampton.

Over 6000k interactions with our interventions

25+ monthly meetups

1200+ men have attended our sessions

The fundraiser I'm tackling is going to be 10 marathons in 10 days next June. This will be by far the toughest challenge I have faced to date and will take everything I have but I am more than ready for the it.

Any funds raised will go towards helping us maintain our free services, support in getting new equipment for future projects in the pipeline and also aid us with breaking the barriers which stop men attending sessions due to cost, such as hiking clothing, boots, bags and accessories.

My running journey -

I started my running journey 5 years ago when I took up running a half marathon to raise money for a good friend of mine who sadly lost his battle with mental health. Due to the high cost of a headstone his family weren't able to cover the full amount so I decided to help them by doing this run in his memory and to aid them.

This led me to take up doing another fundraiser a few years later, to raise money for mandem meetup and also in memory of my friend Ryan, this consisted of doing 4 half marathons in July and a full marathon on the 3rd year anniversary of his passing in 2023.

Of the back of that I have since run 2 ultra marathons, one being ran in the Peak district and the other in Snowdonia. Two tough tasks but I feel I have a lot more to give on this journey, hence why I am now taking up this challenge.

I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to open this up and read. If I can kindly ask you to share on your socials and donate if you are able to, please also spread the message from us at mandem meetup if you know anyone who is struggling

We are also going to be supporting the Sue Ryder Care charity.