Five guys from the West Midlands are aiming to get men talking about their mental health with a bi-weekly podcast and live stream.
Black Country Blokes was set up in October 2019 and has gone from strength-to-strength, especially since the first lockdown six months later.
Dudley lads Kev Dillon, Lee Cadman, Aren Deu, Craig Pinches and Tom Garrett are the main men involved.
Each Tuesday they go live on their Facebook and YouTube accounts where they talk about their experiences with mental health issues; while on Thursday’s they are joined by a special guest.
“What we want to do is knock down those walls – that stigma that surrounds mental health, especially for us blokes.
The only way men talk normally is after eight pints, or if they are doing naughty stuff, and then we can always blame it on being drunk, but what we are actually doing is that we are screaming out to talk; and that’s why we started.
They say that men don’t talk, and in our opinion men do talk, it’s just that no one is listening.”
Kev Dillon
Alex Brooker from Channel 4’s hit Friday night show ‘The Last Leg’ is among those who will feature on ‘Black Country Blokes’ in the coming weeks.
In the first of a new series on Birmingham Eastside – ‘Birmingham Eastside Talks’, we caught up with Kev, Lee and Tom; who spoke us about the podcast and their own mental health struggles.
Check the video out now on our Youtube channel or watch below.
