Andy's Man Club to open in Radcliffe after Bury success

Andy’s Man Club has announced that they will launch their ninth Greater Manchester group in Radcliffe on Monday, July 17 after a huge growth in popularity for their Bury-based club.

The launch of the free support group will take the total of clubs nationwide to 133 and meetings will take place at the Pickford Suite at Neuven Stadium.

Dan Rowe, senior project development champion at Andy’s Man Club, said: “We couldn’t be happier to be opening a group in Radcliffe for the first time on July 17.

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Andy's Man Club, Bury (Image: Public)

“A massive thanks must go to Paul Hilton, chairman of Radcliffe FC, for his generosity in offering the Pickford Suite at Neuven Stadium as our venue.

“This expansion is a marker of how much of a need there is for a service like Andy's Man Club in the borough of Bury and we’re looking forward to getting open.”

The expansion has been made possible after attendees from the Bury group stepped up to volunteer their time.

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Lead facilitator at the Bury group, Luke Tetlow-Cross, told the Bury Times last year that in less than six months of starting the group, numbers almost doubled.

He said: “I remember on our first ever session in March, at the start of the night I took a picture and we had 22 chairs out, I was thinking I will probably get four of five people and we’ve got way too many chairs, then 25 people turned up.”

By May, of the same year, the group had 45 attendees.

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As the group celebrated their first anniversary in the town, one attendee said the weekly sessions had put him in a “whole different place”.

He said: “Once the session started it was a little overwhelming and when it was my turn to talk I cried, I wasn’t judged and the support was amazing.

"I composed myself and spoke about how I felt, what had been happening and people there related to what I was saying, some offered some words of encouragement and bits of advice that had worked for them.  

“I left feeling so much better having spoken out and had people listen and not judge me really helped.  

“I went home and my wife asked how it went, I responded with good and I’m going back next week.  

“I can’t thank everybody at Andy's for what they have done and the support they give, I am in a whole different place and people say they see a different me from when I first went.”

The new Radcliffe club will add to the charity's sites in Bury, Manchester, Altrincham, Rochdale, Leigh, Bolton, Wigan and Oldham.

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