Bottled Up Blokes is about trying to provide a safe platform for men to open up about their mental health and life struggles.

As someone who struggles with depression I know how important it is to talk and to not bottle things up. I feel Bottled Up Blokes can provide that space for men to feel safe, not judged and supported. This could be on the Facebook group, Twitter, WhatsApp or at the weekly peer support groups in the local church hall.

Each week we run a support group where like minded men get together for a chat, a brew and to offload abit. We have serious chat about how people are feeling and their challenges but also try to make it light hearted so people can feel comfortable.

Unfortunately like most things this comes at a financial cost. Since we started I have personally funded everything along with some extremely kind donations from other people and groups. For the first few months I have been happy to do this but this isn't a long term solution and it's not sustainable. If we are to continue with doing with weekly groups we need sponsorship/funding/donations.

So with that in mind I’ve decided to sign up to a couple of events in the hope that people may donate. On Sunday 18th September I will be doing The Rasslebock Run at Sherwood Pines Forest Park. This is a 6 hour event where you run as many laps of a 5.279k loop as you can or want. To put that into perspective 9 laps is a full marathon. Well me being me I would want to do as many as I can within the 6 hours, even if that involves some walking. The next event is a week after on 25th September, which is the Robin Hood half marathon in Nottingham, which in all fairness could be even harder as I imagine my legs will still be shot from The Rasslebock Run.

All money donated and raised will go into the Bottled Up Blokes account and will help to keep the weekly sessions going.

£204 target may be an odd number but this will cover the hire of the venue where we have the meetings for 6 weeks.

Any donation will be gratefully received and appreciated by myself and all the members of Bottled Up Blokes.

Thanks

Tim Cox