Men's Shed Fleetwood pledges support to struggling sister organisation in Australia

The Men's Shed on Manor Road is a small community support group known for welcoming men with open arms - no waiting list required.

But overseas in Australia, the Men's Shed association is recognised as one of the country's largest male-based mental health charities, with more than 100 sheds from Adelaide to Sydney.

Sadly one shed, based in Monash, Melbourne, is struggling following a break-in at the weekend which left the building 'in tatters'.

Tony O'Neill, one of the founders of Men's Shed Fleetwood, said: "It has been broken in to and vandalised leaving all the hard work been done over many years in tatters. It has caused over £20,000 worth of damage.

"If somebody came into our place and spray painted it and smashed everything up, it would be devastating. There's two ways you can go - either it makes you stronger as a team, or it can demoralise you and shut you down, and that's something we don't want to see anywhere, even on the other side of the world."

Men's Shed Fleetwood and its supporters have raised £200 for the repairs needed in Monash so far, and hope to raise £800 more.Tony said: "When I started Men's Shed Fleetwood I didn't know what to call it. It was only after people started joining that we changed the name to Men's Shed; we are affiliated with them and have taken on all their guidelines as part of our job. It's a great organisation.

"Two years ago we were honoured with a visit from Rae Bonney, who is one of the founders of Men's Shed internationally. She came to Fleetwood and gave a speech, and not one person moved for 45 minutes. She left a lasting memory on us all. So we wanted to show them the love and raise a bit of money to help them rebuild their centre and their faith in humanity.

"I know there's a lot of fundraisers going on out there for different things, but we thought if we could just raise a bit of cash we could contribute to the repairs.

"No matter how many miles apart we are, we can still pull together as one when we need to. You hit one person, we all stand up."