‘It’s about mental health, it’s about men not being scared to open up’
Jimmy Bullard has helped out at a new pop-up café with the aim of getting men to open up about their mental health and any struggles they may be experiencing.
On October, the Premier League cult figure teamed up with Pringles to open the Scan and Scran Café designed to get people checking in on their mates.
The traditional British greasy spoon style pop-up was launched on Wednesday (October 2), in partnership with Movember.
Whilst serving up sausage baps, Jimmy was also on hand to give advice on how to ‘scan’ the room to spot who might be struggling, and the best ways to check in with your mates.
The initiative comes as research finds that almost half of Brits (47 per cent) don’t know how to ask someone if they’re okay.
Meanwhile, nearly one in five British men admit they’ve never had a conversation about mental health, with a similar number saying they aren’t confident they could spot the signs of a loved one or friend struggling with their mental health.
Having worked as a tradesman before his football career, the former Fulham, Hull and Wigan midfielder knows better than anyone that construction workers are amongst those least likely to be having mental health conversations.
So where better to start speaking up than in the comfort of a typical British greasy spoon?
We headed down to the Scan and Scran café to chat to Jimmy about the initiative.
He said: “We’ve come up with the Scan and Scran Cafe, which is a pop up cafe for all kinds of different trades and men in general to come in, have a nice breakfast, and just talk about mental health.
“We’ve struggled as men, to be open and honest. I went through a bit of a stage in my career when I finished football, I used to call it life becoming a little bit greyer, and just to have somewhere to open up and talk about your problems, and just have a chin wag as a man, I think it’s massively important.”
It’s all part of Pringles’ and Movember’s ‘Scan My Mo, to Help a Bro’ campaign. If you need help reaching out to someone who is struggling, just scan the QR code on Mr P’s iconic moustache for help starting the conversation.
Speaking about how it can be difficult to know how to start a conversation with someone about mental health, Bullard continued: “I’ve just been walking around the tables, just to open up conversation.
“We’ve got the ‘scan my mo and help a bro’, which is a great idea. Mr P’s got a little tie, if you go on the little QR code and it gives you ideas how to start conversation, because it isn’t easy, you know?
“I had a little look into it this morning and it’s a great starter. I’m quite open anyway, so it’s easy for me being 46 now, but going back, when I was 25, 26, 27 when I was sort of trying to find myself, it wasn’t easy.
“But for me to come into a place like this, a little pop up café, traditional breakfast, where you can talk to the boys, it’s brilliant.
“In a nutshell, it’s about mental health, it’s about men not being scared to open up, and this will help massively, especially if you’re going through hard times.”
Jimmy Bullard has launched the ‘Scan and Scran Café’ to get the nation checking in on their mates in partnership with Pringles and Movember. Need help reaching out to someone who is struggling? You can now scan the QR code in Mr P’s iconic moustache on select Pringles tubes for help starting the conversation.
