![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fishing-on-river-Tackling-Minds-SWNS.jpg\")
Tackling Minds uses fishing to tackle mental health \u2013 via SWNS<\/p>\n Tackling Minds uses fishing to tackle mental health \u2013 via SWNS<\/p>\n
After fishing turned out to be the saving grace during his recovery from a decade of mental health struggles and alcohol addiction, an Englishman wanted to hook others on the soothing sport\u2014and now his program is a medicine being prescribed by doctors.<\/p>\n
Founded five years ago, the service staffed by fishing volunteers, has partnered with the UK\u2019s National Health Service, to prescribe angling for anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for fishing I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be here,\u201d he admitted in an interview with SWNS news agency.<\/p>\n
His program gained national recognition last month when it was honored by King Charles\u2014winning the King\u2019s Award for Voluntary Service, the business equivalent of an MBE.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just ecstatic!\u201d said Dave Lyons, the founder of Tackling Minds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very, very proud of the group and all our volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He initially worked with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, but in April 2021, he teamed up with the NHS so doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals could prescribe angling instead of, or alongside, antidepressants and anxiety medications.<\/p>\n
2,300 people have been prescribed a stint of fishing, so far\u2014and all the equipment and coaching is provided by Tackling Minds<\/a>, which always releases every fish that has been caught.<\/p>\n Organizers hope the program will soon be rolled out nationwide as part of the NHS\u2019 \u201csocial prescribing\u201d initiative.<\/p>\n Social prescribing, known also as community referrals, includes a range of activities that could help with mental health. Such programs include visits to<\/a> museums, poetry reading<\/a>, and excursions into nature\u2014especially the latter because so many studies<\/a> show that time spent in nature, particularly around tree cover, improves both mental and physical health, and can reduce pain<\/a>.<\/p>\n (In fact, in 2022<\/a>, PaRx Canada consisted of over 1,000 physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals in B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario who can prescribe a free annual pass from the Canadian parks authority.)<\/p>\n Tackling Minds provides each participant with a qualified angling coach trained to work with people in vulnerable situations, and each group has support workers, paid for in part with $13,000 (\u00a310,000) in National Lottery funding and financial support from the Angling Trust.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople we\u2019ve worked with have said it\u2019s saved their lives. That\u2019s huge for me, it\u2019s what keeps me going,\u201d said the father of two from Stockport, Cheshire.<\/p>\n Dave got an email from Buckingham Palace officials on October 7 revealing that Tackling Minds had won the King\u2019s Award.<\/p>\n \u201cThis feels like the highest accolade we could have hoped for,\u201d said the 41-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family are very proud of the group\u2014and of me\u2014for everything I have overcome, and that\u2019s very touching.\u201d<\/p>\n SWEET ANXIETY BUSTERS: He is looking forward to collecting the crystal award at a ceremony in Manchester in December, and to attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace in the spring.<\/p>\n Dave\u2014who received congratulations from TV hosts Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse, who star in the BBC show Gone Fishing\u2014is dedicating the award to Tackling Minds\u2019 late ambassador, the former world boxing champion Ricky Hatton, who lost his life to suicide on September 14.<\/p>\n \u201cRicky helped me in my worst times in 2020. He gave me so much encouragement and we became friends.<\/p>\n \u201cHe worked so hard helping people with their mental health, and I just know how proud he would have been of me, the family, and the group.\u201d<\/p>\n Tackling Minds now has over 50 volunteers and plans to expand its services to bring the peace of fishing to others in Lancashire and beyond.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Tackling-Minds-volunteer-fishing-for-mental-health-Tackling-Minds-via-SWNS.jpg\")
Tackling Minds uses fishing to tackle mental health \u2013 via SWNS<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fishermen-volunteers-for-Tackling-Minds-SWNS-SQUARE.jpg\")
Volunteers with Tackling Minds with founder Dave (middle, center) \u2013 via SWNS
\nA royal thank you<\/p>\n
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