‘For Men To Talk’ Founder Wins BBC Three Counties Radio ‘Make A Difference’ Award
By Luke Newman, founder/director of ‘For Men To Talk’
As I write this, I’m still stunned, humbled and emotional to have been awarded a ‘Make A Difference’ Award from BBC Three Counties Radio held on Thursday 22 September at the Grove Theatre in Dunstable. The station serves the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
I’ve been a huge fan of BBC Three Counties for a long, long time. I like that they focus on local communities through a mixture of speech, music, sport and debates.
The station has been a big supporter of my initiatives, such as my humanitarian trips to Kenya and obviously ‘For Men To Talk’ for many years. I’ve been in the Dunstable studio a few times, as well as talking via telephone, to presenters such as Nick Coffer, Roberto Perrone and Babs Michel.
The BBC’s ‘Make A Difference’ awards was first set up at the start of the first pandemic lockdown. It’s to recognise remarkable people, marking their achievements and contributions to lives in their communities.
To date, the BBC says over 8 Million people have interacted across all 39 local BBC radio stations, that collectively cover all of England, Jersey and Guernsey.
Categories cover the unsung heroes of every community from great neighbours, inspirational teachers, awesome volunteers or even outstanding key workers.
In the last few days, I have been informed that a few of the attendees from ‘For Men To Talk’ kindly kindly nominated for an award earlier this year. This went to a panel, who shortlisted me with just three other people in the ‘Volunteer Category’.
The Volunteer Award is given to an individual who makes a real difference to the community by giving up their time to help out a charity or good cause.
I formed ‘For Men To Talk’ back in December 2019 and for two and a half years, I’ve worked extremely hard to publicise the group in what I am trying to achieve. For men not to feel alone in their mental health journeys and that the meetings are a safe and comfortable environment for them to be open and talk about how they are feeling.
To win this award is a testimony to every single man who have attended our meetings, no matter if they come regularly or just the once and I am so proud and honoured of myself and them on what we have achieved so far. To win is just incredible and a further statement to ‘Get More Men Talking’.
You can see the award announcement and my speech in the video below.