This month, the Penrith Men’s Walk and Talk will be celebrating their first birthday. To mark the occasion, the local group have organised a special walk, taking place on Saturday 21st March along the Nepean River and everyone is invited.

“Similar to the Troy Harding Memorial Walk, we have organised a Saturday morning walk to celebrate our first birthday. We’ll be meeting at the Coffee Club side of the Nepean River, near the bridge from 10:00am for a 10:30am walk. This walk is a little unusual to our normal Thursday night walk and we encourage wives, girlfriends and families to come along” said Paul Wallace of Penrith Men’s Walk and Talk to the Emu and Leonay Gazette.

Since it first began, the walk has grown significantly from their first day of 19 walkers to consistently having over 100 men walk every Thursday.

“Seeing some of the guys get genuine happiness and a sense of camaraderie from the group has been a real highlight, as well as the benefits and health improvements of being active” explained Paul.

“The group has resonated with so many men because it is a non-judging, all equal format where blokes feel comfortable talking or listening” he added.

Penrith Men’s Walk and Talk plan to go forward and continue what they’ve done over the past 12 months, which is to provide an outlet and bond for men of all ages to feel comfortable and to get things off their chest and improve their mental and physical well-being.

For those men who have thought about joining the walk, but haven’t yet, Paul has this message of support,

“Everybody walks for the first time and, although a lot of men suffer from anxiety or depression, this non-judging group have one motto and that is ‘No one walks alone’ “.