What we've done and what's coming up!

Fear not, things with MHAG have been carrying on with our monthly meetings continuing and many great chats about mental health. This blog however I have let slide a little due to not being very well and a brief stay in hospital. I am back on track now and more focused than ever to push MHAG as far as we can and affect change in Redditch. It is desperately needed and wanted!

So some of the things which have been going on:
- We were made the mayor's charity! Pat Witherspoon picked MHAG and Redditch Friends Together as her two charities to help highlight mental health and dementia within the town. Thanks Pat! She's in office until May so plenty of exciting events will be coming up.
- We laughed! Pat hosted a comedy night called Ship Of Fools which was absolutely brilliant. There were five comedians plus compere Ant Hill (thanks to Ant for all his work to make it a success!). Lots of money raised and lots of laughs too.
- We talked! We've spoken to Dr Tim Lee, who's the lead for mental health on Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group's governing body, about their plans for the future as well as Helen Broughton from the strategic partnership about the work their mental health committee is doing and Homestart about their services to help people with postnatal depression.
- We visited! We went to events including the Bandstand Festival and Astwood Bank Carnival. It's great to bring mental health to the masses at places like that.

Wellbeing Week:
- Our first event is a poetry evening next Tuesday (October 7) at 7.30pm at the Redi Centre. We're hoping to highlight how getting creative and either reading or creating poetry can help with your mental health. Come along and join us - it's free but donations are welcome!

- Advice shop. As with last year we'll be hosting a two-day advice shop in the Kingfisher Centre. We're outside Primark (by the escalators) all day next Friday and Saturday (October 10 and 11) and we've got plenty of activities, crafts, puzzles, food making etc! Do pop along.

There are also lots of exciting projects in the pipeline and next week with the help of the Redditch Standard (my day job!) we'll be marking World Mental Health Day with the launch of a new pledge for the town.

Harriet.

Malvern Hills - Three Peaks practice

Yet again we made the decision not to walk up Snowdon due to the bad weather conditions there in the early part of last week but we opted to walk the Malvern Hills instead so we could still get some walking practice in. Alongside some representatives from the TA based in Redditch who are hoping to join in with the challenge this summer, we walked over nine miles on Sunday on what thankfully proved to be a lovely day.

We have now delayed our Snowdon walk until April when hopefully the weather will have brightened up and we will be able to safely get up (and down!). We are also aiming to have climbed Scafell Pike as part of our practice which means by the time the actual Three Peaks challenge comes around in August we will have tackled two of the three mountains.

There is plenty of time for people to get on board - call 07788 379389 or e-mail redditchmhag@gmail.com for more information.