A Shrewsbury scene landmark closes its doors ... but is it really the end?

The café, events space and gaming venue on Mardol in Shrewsbury closed last weekend.

Some of the Nerdy diehards said goodbye to the venue with The Final Hurrah, a cabaret evening, on Sunday night.

I went along to meet some of them and to take in part of the show. Hear what happened on this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

Former Shrewsbury mayor Jane Mackenzie works to alert Shropshire schoolchildren to the dangers of abusing alcohol.

But why?

Find out in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

‘What was the pain that she was trying to numb?’

Jane's daughter Amy started drinking alcohol, along with many of her peers, in her very early teens. By the time she was a university student, she was addicted to alcohol.

‘It just took all the good things out of her life’

Jane Mackenzie doesn’t want other young people to go through what Amy did. She doesn’t want other parents to know the pain she’s known, either. Find out how she tries to make sure that doesn’t happen, in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

If Jane’s story connects with you, please feel free to share it with others?

‘I became an expert by experience’

Jane became an expert on alcohol addiction through her own experience with Amy.

What are you an expert on, by experience?

Would you tell me your story on Hello You?

Send me a message or leave a comment?

Stories from your family

Jane Mackenzie had another story to tell whilst we sat in her garden.

Again, it involves a member of her family. But it’s a story about which she knew little, until she starting digging into it.

What she’s discovered is so fascinating, Jane’s writing a book about it.

It’s a story of courage, compassion and dogged resilience in the face of evil and bureaucracy. It also sheds light on an unknown facet of one of the great humanitarian actions of the twentieth century.

You can hear Jane Mackenzie tell that story, next week on Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

Mental Health Awareness Week, some questions for you, and more

Would you mind answering a few questions for me?

There are some questions I’d love to know your answers to.

Find out what those questions are in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast

In return, I’ll answer questions for you and your friends

If you’re part of a group, an organisation or a regular meet-up, fancy getting together for a chat?

I’m happy to come to see you, either as a guest speaker talking about Hello You, radio, media, Shropshire and so on, or just to hang out and chat with you and your chums or colleagues. Message me?

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week

More help, support and resources from:

• the Mental Health Foundation, including How does community boost our mental health?

• Mind

• Mental Health First Aid England

• Samaritans

Please check out these pages, and share them with other people?

People-watching and date-witnessing in the Dingle, on the award-winning Hello You

I was thrilled and very surprised to be recognised in Shrewsbury’s Mayor’s Awards for Hello You the Shropshire podcast. I’ll now be using the phrase ‘award-winning’ as often and as gratuitously as you’d expect.

I picked up an award in the ‘Courtesy’ category, which is basically the ‘Vibe’ category. It recognises people whose work, volunteering or passion makes Shrewsbury a cool, exciting, supportive and good place to live. I’ll take that, thank you!

Huge congratulations to the other award winners too! There’s a full list on Shrewsbury Town Council’s Facebook. The Gold Award in the ‘Courtesy’ category went to Shrewsbury Street Pastors, and the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Maggie Love, Shrewsbury’s queen of theatre, dance and spectacle who set up the Shrewsbury Ambassadors scheme among so much else.

On a bench in the Dingle

On Tuesday afternoon I took myself off to a bench in the Dingle, in Shrewsbury’s Quarry (Park). It was a particular bench, suggested by Denise on BlueSky who said she thought it has the best view of any in the county. But was it a prime spot for talking to people? It was certainly a good location for watching them …

You can hear what happened in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

James shares his story of the hell and degradation of chemsex: risky sexual behaviour whilst using- and addicted to - crystal meth

*content warning: drug use, rape, extreme sex, suicide, grooming and coercive behaviour*

‘I literally could not believe what I had done’

James is thirty-six years old. A former hairdressing salon manager and estate agent, over the last six years he’s lost his job, his home and his husband because of chemsex.

In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, James tells his story because, as he put it, if it stops just one person going the same way he did, it’s worth it. If you have someone you think would be interested in hearing what James has to say, please share this episode with them?

‘Your morals and your sense of self are removed'

It’s not an easy listen, and I think it’s brave of James to approach me to share his story. You may well find some of what he has to say difficult to deal with. These are accounts from a world - worlds, in fact - that may be very different from yours.

But James says this:

‘In Shropshire, you are never more than fifteen miles from someone using crystal meth, and having a party’

It might be a different world, but it’s not necessarily a distant one. And James believes we need to be prepared for ‘a horrendous epidemic of people having the worst psychological issues’ as a result of chemsex and crystal meth.

How much does your GP know about this? Would they know where and how to help someone who presented with mental health problems caused by crystal meth?

Important: Where to get help

Help for adults and young people in Shropshire with drug and alcohol issues is provided by Shropshire Recovery Partnership.

What do you make of James’s story?

Feel free to leave a comment or message me directly?

Plus a news-related mini-rant, heads-up about the chemsex episode, and Yay Canada!

‘It’s a way of educating people about our amazing county’

Sarah Evans is a mixed-media artist based in Wem, whose work can be seen all across Shropshire.

Shrewsbury’s Flaxmill Maltings commissioned Sarah to create a mural to brighten up the area on the former-canal side of the building’s café. As Sarah works with a variety of fragile and delicate materials, the plan was always to digitise the completed work, print it onto a weatherproof banner and suspend that from the railings by the café. That version of the mural mosaic was unveiled on Saturday afternoon.

But that leaves the original artwork looking for a home!

Sarah Evans hoped that space could be found for it elsewhere at the Flaxmill Maltings, but that now seems unlikely. In this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, Sarah explains how you, or a public space near you, could play a part in the mural’s future.

If you know of somewhere that could host this amazing mural mosaic for a few months, with art and story-telling events and workshops around it, contact Sarah Evans on Facebook, and tell her Hello You sent you!

Everybody needs a friend like Jen

I’ve been there. You might have, too. It’s the point where, as Hello You family member Jen puts it, ‘someone lets go of all the pretending’. Jen’s lifelong friend reached that point on March 6th this year. It’s what has happened - or not happened - since that Jen wants to share with you in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

Jen contacted me despite being unsure if what she had to say was interesting enough to make an episode of Hello You. She needn’t have worried. Im always interested in sharing stories of people’s experiences with mental health, and with mental health support and services, positive or otherwise.

Hence my suspicion that there are other stories out there like Jen’s. Are there other people going through similar things to Jen’s friend?

If you work in mental health, if you’re a social worker, if you work with patients presenting with MH issues in our local hospitals, I’d really like to know what you think of this episode.

Is this unusual? How has Jen’s friend fallen through the cracks?

And if you have a story, a personal experience that you’d like to share with the Hello You family, whether it’s about mental health or anything else, feel free to get in touch.

Next week, another episode of Hello You will touch on the difficulty of finding the right help when you’re going through hell.

In this case, the hell is fuelled by crystal meth. It cost James almost everything, nearly including his life. James tells his story of the catastrophic consequences of chemsex on Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

Gin and gallivanting with Ann and her 99-year-old mum ElsieAnn’s lived and worked in forty-four different countries. Her mum Elsie is ninety-nine years old.

So as you can imagine, between them they have quite a few stories to tell … often about each other!

You can hear those stories in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, along with discussions about:

• rescuing dogs from China

• domineering mothers and how to escape them

• encountering a stag in a Scottish forest at daybreak

• measles

• apparently-haunted aircraft parts

• painting on ceramics

• irresponsible parenting with regard to horror movies

• knowing when it’s time to give up and do something else

  
  

Coming up on Hello You the Shropshire podcast:

The cancellation of this year’s Shrewsbury Flower Show took a lot of people by surprise. What’s been going on? Is it time for a new approach? And what’s behind the curtain at Shropshire Horticultural Society?

Next week you can hear about the Flower Show’s past, present and future from an absolute stalwart of the SHS who was part of the Show for half a century. What does he make of what’s happened, and where does Shrewsbury’s premier show go from here?

What can you do when someone close to you is deep in a mental health crisis? Where do you turn, and what help is available?

On Friday morning’s episode you’ll hear one woman’s story of trying to help her lifelong friend get the support she desperately needs, without success even when her friend was in A&E at one of our local hospitals.

And next week, another episode of Hello You will touch on the difficulty of finding the right help when you’re going through hell.

In this case, the hell is fuelled by crystal meth. It cost James almost everything, nearly including his life. James tells his story of the catastrophic consequences of chemsex on Hello You the Shropshire podcast.