{"id":42712,"date":"2025-08-03T18:09:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42712\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T18:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:09:20","slug":"anonymous-voice-note-sharing-site-to-cut-mens-sense-of-isolation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42712\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous voice note sharing site to cut men’s sense of isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob Butler & Andrew Turner<\/p>\n

BBC News, Norfolk<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Butler\/BBC<\/p>\n

Founder Jonny Human (right), pictured with his colleague Danny Tanti, said voicing troubles and hearing others could reduce a sense of feeling alone<\/p>\n

A football fan from Norfolk has set up a support network for people struggling with mental ill health.<\/p>\n

Say It Lad allows people to share voice notes anonymously which are curated and posted on to a website.<\/p>\n

The idea is to help people externalise their thoughts and to take inspiration from others who are either experiencing difficulties or who have overcome their troubles.<\/p>\n

Founder Jonny Human told BBC Radio Norfolk’s The Scrimmage<\/a>: “They can just hear other voices; other experiences and just know that they’re not alone.”<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Former Premier League footballer and boxer Leon McKenzie, an ambassador of Say It Lad, says the voice note sharing site is “very powerful”<\/p>\n

Former Premier League footballer and boxer Leon McKenzie is an ambassador of Say It Lad.<\/p>\n

Having served a prison sentence in 2012<\/a> for sending bogus letters to police in an attempt to avoid a driving ban, he has struggled with his own mental health.<\/p>\n

In a voice note on the Say It Lad website, he said: “It’s all about trying to be together, because every one of us has gone, and is going through, some kind of something.<\/p>\n

“To be an ambassador is very powerful and I’m looking forward to listening to people, and collectively making something very powerful and inspiring, helping others who are truly struggling.”<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Butler\/BBC<\/p>\n

Jonny Human told BBC Radio Norfolk he set up Say It Lad after experiencing suicidal thoughts which affected him two years ago<\/p>\n

Mr Human, 47, who works for a software company based in the Norwich, has been a life-long Canaries fan.<\/p>\n

He has self-funded Say It Lad – which he came up with after a downturn in his own mental health – and is in the process of applying for community interest company status for the website.<\/p>\n

“I had some crazy breakdown; it came out of nowhere,” he said. <\/p>\n

“It was like one morning I woke up and someone flicked a switch. I was having suicidal thoughts. From being completely normal to having those feelings scared the life out of me.”<\/p>\n

He found that cognitive behavioural therapy via the NHS was not for him: “All these people say ‘talk to me’, but you feel so alone at that point.<\/p>\n

“With Say It Lad, I just wanted people to leave voice notes that I can put on a site and they can listen and relate… and feel ‘I’m not alone’.”<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Butler\/BBC<\/p>\n

Danny Tanti (pictured) said he had always been able to speak about mental health issues with his friend and Say It Lad founder Jonny Human<\/p>\n

Mr Human’s colleague Danny Tanti turned to the service following the death of his mother.<\/p>\n

“There was a massive cloud over me. One day I was all right, the next I wasn’t,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been to wellbeing services but this just felt different; like a massive release like I was being listened to, even though it was a voice note. It was a weight off my shoulders.<\/p>\n

“The power of the voice note is so much different to texting, leaving details [and] motivational quotes.”<\/p>\n

If you have been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rob Butler & Andrew Turner BBC News, Norfolk Rob Butler\/BBC Founder Jonny Human (right), pictured with his colleague…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-42712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}