A NEW self-help group for people with depression and related mental illnesses is up and running in Pershore.

The fortnightly group is run by Sue and Donald under the auspices of Depression Alliance and aims to help people of all ages from the Vale to try and lift the burden of depression.

Every alternate Monday evening from 7 to 9pm, the group meets and discusses people's problems and their progress in a bid to make them feel less isolated.

Sue finds the group is a great way for people with similar experiences to network.

"The group has never been a bunch of people sat around shuffling their feet or clearing their throat with nothing to say," she said.

Donald agrees, and says that you can see the burden lift from people as they begin to talk, and the people around them form an understanding, and they no longer feel isolated.

Donald spoke of one man who recently attended a session. He was complaining about a house he had bought and it needed doing up.

He said: "He always used to say that he could never find time to do repairs on the house, and two other members in the group offered to help him."

Sue says that it isn't quite like that for the women.

"We might agree to meet up and go for a coffee or something," she said.

Sue and Donald have both suffered depression in the past. Sue used to run a group from 1991 until 1997, but this folded due to dwindling numbers, but now she and Donald are ready to take up the challenge once again.

Donald already runs a successful group in Worcester, and Sue says that Pershore really needs this group because as to her knowledge there isn't another group working under the auspices of Depression Alliance from here to Rugby.

"I feel passionately about this group. I have seen in the past how people can be revived.

"We attract people who've got the motivation to try and sort it out. Most of the people we have in our groups wouldn't feel as though they have been defeated," she concluded.

For more information about the group, call Sue on 01386 556426.