Pub group for strangers marks 1,000th meet-up

A campaign to tackle loneliness by encouraging strangers to chat with each other in pubs has marked its 1,000th event.

Dean Perryman, from Hockley in Essex, started his Empty Chairs website at the end of last year after his best friend Rob took his own life.

The movement has spread around the world, with volunteers donning bright clothes to hold events in countries including Colombia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Australia with the 1,000th event held on 24 June in Leigh-on-Sea.

"It's just been such a surreal experience," Perryman told Jake Peach on BBC Essex.

"I was pretty lost in December when I started and I had no plans for what Empty Chairs might do for me and what it might do for other people."

Perryman advertises his whereabouts online and turns up to pubs wearing bright orange T-shirts and jumpers so he can easily be spotted.

Other events have been held across the country, including get-togethers in Cambridgeshire and London.

The 30-year-old said: "I didn't know how to tackle an issue as big as men's mental health or loneliness.

"But I knew that I was OK at talking to strangers and I knew that Rob would have taken refuge in a pub if he ever needed somewhere to go."

James Caiger started hosting events in Peterborough in February after spotting the campaign on social media.

He wanted to get involved because his brother took his own life five years ago.

The events have attracted people in their 20s to their 70s, he said.

"What I like to say is I create the space but they make the space – the people that come and enjoy it," the 40-year-old said.

"There's no agenda. People are free to talk about what they want. It's never pressured."

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