A NEW chapter of Andy's Man Club in Dunfermline began this week with two groups starting up in the town.

The group has been based in the Erskine Church since it started up its weekly meetings at the Erskine building back in 2019.

Having grown out of its original base, it has now split into two separate groups – Dunfermline North will meet at Townhill Bowling Club while Dunfermline South will be based at Duunfermline Rugby Club's McKane Park.

The peer-to-peer support group for men provides a space to talk under the banner #ITSOKTOTALK and aims to help to challenge the stigma of mental health and promote suicide prevention.

Andy's Man Club project development champion, Alex McClintock, said the launch of the two new venues indicated the growth in the group.

"We have been in Erskine Partnership buildings since it started," he explained. "There were issues with electrics the other week so we had to look for a temporary venue. We were offered lots of venues across the town and it is something we were discussing. We are averaging about 42 guys and squeezing them into three wee rooms.

"We were looking for a second venue anyway and it just so happened that we found two really good venues who were really happy to support us.

"The Erskine building has been brilliant for the last three years but we need to move and grow and sometimes a shift to new venues is a good refresh and can appeal to a different audience. We might get guys who have not heard of us come along."

The two new venues opened their Monday evening meetings officially this week, bring the total number of Andy's Man Clubs in Scotland to 21.

"We have five in Fife with another one due to open in Dalgety Bay in a couple of weeks and we are talking to people from other parts of the county," said Alex. "We were at the football in Cowdenbeath doing awareness stuff and it is looking like it could be double figures fairly soon.

"Guys come from other parts of the county into Dunfermline and want to take it back to their own town. Since COVID, a lot more people want to get involved and offer us space because we have all gone through a shared experience of COVID and more people are willing to step up and do what they can to help.

"Hopefully, we can help reduce some of the statistics of suicide.

"The meetings (in Dunfermline) are on every Monday from 7pm. People can just turn up at the venue maybe five/10 minutes before. There is never any pressure to share so if someone wants to come along for the first time, they can just sit and listen."