By Andy Hirst

A Huddersfield charity renowned for helping men with mental health problems is now branching out to help more women.

Platform 1 is setting up two support groups for women – one to help those going through the menopause and the other to support those diagnosed with breast cancer.

It follows the charity setting up a support group for men with prostate cancer.

It now also provides a counselling service for the families of people who have taken their own lives as suicide has a devastating impact on those left behind.

Platform 1 project leader Gez Walsh said: “The charity continues to change rapidly to meet demand and when people are diagnosed with cancer it does often have a major impact on their mental health too.

READ MORE: How Platform 1 is rapidly expanding its range of services

“We provide counselling sessions and what people have told us during these made us realise there is a need for these support groups.”

He added: “People get the impression that these kinds of groups can be very serious but the prostate cancer one is exactly the opposite. We’ve been going less than a month and have around a dozen men attending already. They are witty, articulate and it’s a really entertaining evening as well as informative one.”

The group meets on the first and third Thursday of every month from 6pm to 7.30pm at 7 St George’s Square next to Platform 1 and this week’s meeting will feature a prostate cancer consultant surgeon – and men who attend can ask him anything.

This coming week is Mental Health Awareness Week (May 9-15) and Platform 1 will be at Morrisons supermarket in Waterloo, Huddersfield, with an information stand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12noon to 6pm.

They will also be at Huddersfield Railway Station holding a coffee morning alongside TransPennine Express on Wednesday from 10am to 12 noon.

On Monday morning, Platform 1 will be at Berry Brow flats alongside an information bus run by Kirklees Plus Team which lets people know about all the support groups, activities and services operating in the borough.

Anyone who wants to attend the menopause, breast cancer or prostate cancer support groups should contact Gez on 07512 018940 or email gez.pfm1@gmail.com 

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging and copywriting. Copyright Andy Hirst.