Today’s guest is the perfect person to have on this Men’s Health Week (9-16th June) because he is doing so much in our community to improve the lives of local men.

Even if you’re not based in the Cairngorms, or don’t have links with it, what he says about supporting men’s health in a community is SO valuable and he’s full of inspiring, transformative ideas. One I’m particularly excited about is how the ‘shedders’ are supporting Kingussie High School pupils.

At a time when there’s so much negativity about masculinity in the mainstream media, it’s so refreshing and important to big-up the positive male role models in our midst - of which Colin is certainly one, and there are many others, as this conversation makes clear.

It also makes clear that - yes, men may be from Mars and women from Venus - but for our society to thrive, we need to collaborate and support each other better. And he has lots of ideas of how.

So. Many. Truthbombs. (As my teen boys might say, and a few are even from them, though no fear of them listening to their mum’s podcast!).

We talk about all sorts: the privilege of growing up here and what it gave Colin, the culture shock of leaving, the power of storytelling and mentoring, how men and women socialise and make friends so differently, how to get men to talk about feelings, loneliness, being true to yourself, how women can support men (spoiler alert: encourage them to things like Men’s Sheds and to get health screened!).

If you have a man in your life that you care about - and that’s the vast majority of us, luckily - then please, please listen to this episode and pass it on. What Colin, and the Men’s Sheds and similar networks are so valuable and it would be great to raise awareness and support for this important causes. Thank you!

Episode also contains a lot of information about how you can get involved with Community Connections, as a volunteer, from befriending to driving.

Follow Badenoch Men’s Shed on Facebook here, or email badenochmenshed@gmail.com

Kincraig Cares podcast is being made on a shoe string out of love, so is very grateful for free resources which make this possible, like the intro and out music which is called 'Holiday Ukulele' by MaxKoMusic, promoted by www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ and part of the Creative Commons Attributions-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)