A ten-day radio relay has encouraged tradespeople to talk openly about mental health across the UK.
Fix Radio’s Grand Builders’ Tea-Lay travelled more than 450 miles from Glasgow to Chichester, using a shared mug of tea to prompt conversations between workers on sites and on air.
The campaign was created in response to ongoing concerns about mental health in the trades, with two workers lost to suicide every working day. By turning a routine tea break into a reason to check in, the initiative aimed to make conversations easier to start.
The mug was passed through locations including Gretna Green, Manchester, Morecambe, Wrexham, Birmingham and Oxford.
Each participant held it for 24 hours before handing it on, with every exchange marked by a discussion about pressures such as workload, finances and isolation.
These moments were broadcast on the Bald Builders Breakfast Show, where listeners heard the conversations between tradespeople. The station also distributed more than 300 Brew and Banter Packs, encouraging teams beyond the route to take part.
Bald Builders Breakfast Show host Brad Hanson said: “It wasn’t forced, it wasn’t scripted, it was just real people having a proper check-in over a brew. That’s exactly what we hoped for.”
The station says that feedback from participants suggested the format helped people open up, with some saying it gave them a reason to ask direct questions and continue conversations after the handover.