A GROUP of Okehampton friends have set up the town’s first-ever podcast to address the stigma surrounding men’s mental health issues.

Jed Shilling, Jordan Hookway, Tyler Harlow and Bradley Bishop conceived of the podcast during the first lockdown as they battled with their own mental health and feelings of loneliness.

The friends reconnected online and decided that as covid restrictions were relaxed they would meet up and start a podcast in an effort to help others in the same situation as themselves.

Jed said: ‘Me and my friends just thought that because we listened to a lot of podcasts ourselves and had struggled with our mental health we would get together.

‘We talk about not feeling alone. If it helped us, maybe it can sort of help other people. We made the podcast so people can listen to it and maybe not feel as alone like we did.’

The team records each episode from Okehampton’s music recording studio, owned by Jed’s dad who kindly lent them the room.

But the boys have been unable to record an episode since Christmas although they are now upping the game and plan to record episodes on a more regular basis this year - at least one a week, said Jed.

To achieve this, the friends designed each podcast episode to mimic a real-life conversation and discuss a range of topics in each episode including music, tattoos and video games.

‘Obviously what we want to talk about is mental health and we’re very open about how we’re feeling and what we’ve done in the past and what helps us now but we also want to have fun, we don’t want to contantly talk about the sad things,’ said Jed.

‘Obviously we expect to have dips in our lives, we’re not always going to be massively happy. We know that, but we want to talk about the good times as well as how we are feeling. I think that’s important.’

The boys have plans to expand their audience and already have listeners in the US.

Jed said: ‘It’s still quite low key at the moment, so the people that come on are usually people that are relatively local. I ha

‘I had a friend from school and he reached out and came on and that was the first time I’d seen him in about ten years. And there are people I’ve never met before that are willing to come on.’

‘We did get a guy from Los Angeles who got in contact with us. He makes music and must have found us through [sadboy music].’

Jed said that though the focus has been on men’s mental health. the podcast was still for everyone, including women.

He said: ‘We’re all boys in the chat, but it’s not specifically for men. We have a few women who have contacted us and we speak to regularly and we check in with so it’s kind of for everyone and anyone.’

The podcast is available to listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

The Sadboy Squad are not the only group aiming to raise awareness of and improve men’s mental health.

Men in Sheds is a national intiative which aims to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness among retired men, who often find it more difficult to maintain friendships after retirement than women of a similar age.

The groups allow men to meet other like-minded individuals while getting involved in active, community-based projects. Okehampton’s Men in Sheds branch is just one of over 600 branches across the UK and 13,000 shedders, as members are known.

Okehampton’s shedders have got involved in several community projects. Recently, the members helped the Gilead Foundations start up its horticulture project.

For more information about Men in Sheds visit www.menssheds.org.uk or the Okehampton Men in Sheds Facebook page.