{"id":621193,"date":"2026-09-11T07:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621193\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T07:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:50:15","slug":"mens-walking-group-and-shoe-box-teens-among-bbc-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621193\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s walking group and shoe box teens among BBC winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

A community group which meets for a weekly cuppa and a stroll by the sea to help combat loneliness in men has won a BBC Make a Difference award for improving the lives of others.<\/p>\n

Walk and Talk EA, external<\/a>, founded by Mark Harwood in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, has been described as “lifeline” for men struggling with their mental health.<\/p>\n

Harwood was among nine community heroes who received well-deserved recognition at a ceremony in Norwich on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

“I see a huge difference in men’s happiness; we’ll have people come to us not knowing where to turn, and a few months down the line their whole life has been turned around,” said Harwood. <\/p>\n

The group came about shortly after lockdown, when Harwood noticed several posts on social media, by men, about loneliness.<\/p>\n

“I made a post on Facebook, just saying I was going for a walk and a cup of tea on the beach, and invited any lads to join me, whether they were friends of mine or not. <\/p>\n

“The first walk, we had three show up, 16 for the second walk, and 30 by the third. <\/p>\n

“These days, we have around 35 to 40 men join us.”<\/p>\n

Harwood’s nominator said the group, which collaborates with GPs and counsellors, had saved his life and “picked me up from a very dark place”.<\/p>\n

“[There is] no judgement, no stigma, just a community of men coming together for themselves and indeed others,” his statement added.<\/p>\n

“A band of brothers that build unbreakable friendships.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A community group which meets for a weekly cuppa and a stroll by the sea to help combat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-621193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}