A personal trainer, who lost six male family members to suicide, has set up a men’s mental health run club to tackle increasing concerns around male suicide rates.
Ciaran Howard, 30, grew up surrounded by alcoholism and domestic abuse, and set up Tribal, a run club for men and their minds, in Putney at the start of this year to provide a space for men to talk.
Suicide is three times more common among men than women in England and Wales, according to data gathered between 1981 to 2023 from the Office of National Statistics.
Howard told the Londoners: “I just have it as a space where guys can get together and, 90% of the time, people don’t really talk about how they’re feeling, but it’s a space for men to open up.
“What’s really interesting is that over a coffee certain things do come out. On countless occasions someone has said something and then someone else said, ‘Oh I feel the exact same way’ and there’s an ability to resonate with what others are doing.”
Howard struggled with drinks and drugs in his early twenties to numb some of his challenging feelings, then when he moved across the world to Sydney it became clear he was not living in line with his values.
Originally from Ireland, Howard watched one of his fellow Irish friends set up Tribal Run Club in Sydney, which invited anyone feeling lonely to come together and run 5k, amounting to over 400 people showing up each week and creating a real sense of community.
When returning to the UK, Howard brought the Tribal brand with him, but chose to focus on men and their mental health, as he feels a ‘responsibility’ to help others who struggle like he has.
“I do truly believe that any of us have the ability to rewire our brain if you do enough work on yourself,” he said.
“It unlocks so much potential that so many of us don’t actually realise that we have and the biggest blocker is if you don’t engage in certain things that are good for you, so you might never get there.”
Conversations around men’s mental health often emerge at this time of year through the charity Movember, whose annual November campaign raises money and awareness to tackle men’s mental health, suicide, prostate and testicular cancer.
When speaking to Movember about the initiative, Tracy Herd, Europe young men’s health director said: “Engaging in a common activity removes some of the pressures of face-to-face emotional disclosure and helps men start conversations naturally.
“In these spaces, tough topics become easier to discuss, building a culture where vulnerability is accepted and supported.”
For Ricky Reyes, 33, the run club was a useful tool to destress following his wife’s difficult birth of their third child, which nearly ended fatally.
Reyes, director of a recruitment company, said: “Guys are terrible, and I suppose all people, but we’re quite bad at opening up to people and I feel like sometimes when you’re all going for the same purpose, like this run club for example, you know that no one is judging you, so you open up a bit more than you might to maybe your friends.”
This feeling was echoed by fellow runner, Sam Smith, 28, who works in corporate development for a sports organisation.
He said: “It is definitely a safe space for people to talk about what’s been going well and also what’s not been going so well in their week, or in their personal or professional lives, and people do on occasion open up.
“I’ve traditionally not been great at that sort of thing but obviously, as you get to know people better, and I know Ciaran pretty well, so particularly with him, it’s a good forum to do that kind of thing.”
Howard never wanted to give prompts or make the mental health aspect of the run club feel forced – he simply wanted to create a space where men knew that the option was there if they needed it.
Mike Eynon, 38, another regular of Tribal, said: “It just feels very natural and it allows everyone to talk about what’s going on in their lives at the moment, so it’s definitely a non-intrusive way of talking about yourself and hearing about other stories and trying to relate to what’s going on with everyone else.”
As a personal trainer who completed 30 triathlons in 30 days last year, Howard boasts a high fitness level, but he makes it clear that the pace of the run club should not prevent people from joining.
The run is 5k long and done at a conversational pace to keep the social side the main focus.
He said: “I’ll hang back with anybody and run whatever pace they want. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
Now that he has quit his corporate job in tech sales to do personal training full-time, Howard looks to expand the run club and has plans to start going to a different coffee shop each week in an effort to reach men across the whole of south west London.
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Featured image credit: Tribal Run Club
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