Grantham rock duo unable to play gigs start their own mental health service

Chantelle, 37, is originally from Newark, but moved to Grantham around a decade ago when she met Shane, 33.

Since then, the couple have been rocking together across the region and beyond as a musical duo specialising in rock covers.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has hit the music industry hard, giving Shane and Chantelle the spare time to start a mental health service.

Chantelle elaborated on what people can expect from the service and why she believes that it is important.

What help will you be offering?

So, basically, we were a regularly gigging rock duo. We both lost jobs, so we’ve been struggling. We’ve also been evicted ourselves and we’ve got so many friends who are in the same boat.

We know a lot of people from around Grantham through music, so this is what made us think that we wanted to give something back. We spoke about the support groups for a little while. I’ve got a background in healthcare anyway.

What we want to offer people is a chance to meet up once a month, hopefully at Finkins Deli. Karen Middleton there has offered to support us with it.

It would be a chance to meet up and have a chat, get together and talk about our problems basically, and see if we can help each other in any way.

We’re also supporting a friend starting next month, so he can get out of the house, giving his wife a bit of respite. We take him out for the day. We know him from gigging as a rock duo, so we’re going to be supporting him as well once a week.

It’s kind of built itself up really to this. We’ve got a lot of friends in need of support and we just want to be able to offer people a chance to come and join us really.

Why do you think this service is important?

I think it’s really important because there’s nothing in between going into hospital. You go to your doctor and say you’ve got a mental health problem or feel like you need support, you’re usually put on a waiting list. I’ve been in that position myself when I had postnatal depression with my son. I was stuck on the waiting list for six months but I felt like I needed the help there and then, or at least speak to somebody that wasn’t my partner or family.

Just having someone to speak to at either the end of the phone or go and meet up with somebody and not feel that you have to go to these groups. It’s there for people when they need that sort of thing. I think it’s like a gap in between going into NHS care; there’s nothing available at all.

Is anyone else currently involved?

We are speaking to a couple of volunteers. One of them is my brother, Richard McAndrew. He’s offered to come and help us with the support groups. We’re just keeping our eye out for volunteers and people that want to get involved. Either help with the advertising or just come and help. We’re quite open at the moment.

How much do you miss performing?

We both miss it. It was always a good thing for our mental health, we used to enjoy it so much. It was just a little break from the kids. We’re full-time home schooling as well, so it was a break for us just to be ourselves and meet people, so we miss it very much.

How long have you been performing together?

It’s eight years now that we’ve been performing in and around Grantham, and various other places as well. When we got taken on through an agency, we started going much further afield but we’ve always loved playing in our home town in places like the Nobody Inn, the King’s Arms, Edwards Bar. It’s very sad.

You can find out more by visiting’ Let’s Rock to Better Mind Health’ on Facebook, or by emailing letsrocktobettermindhealth@outlook.com