Take a cuppa kindness to beat blues any time

Dame Julie Walters supports the Samaritans Brew Monday on Blue Monday (photo: Stuart C Wilson)

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Samaritans Ambassador Julie Walters brands one-day blues as ‘load of rubbish’.

National treasure Dame Julie Walters has joined faces from TV, comedy and show business across the UK in encouraging us all to have a cuppa and chat with someone they care about beyond Samaritans’ recent Brew Monday.

This month’s Blue Monday is branded “most difficult day of the year” but the leading suicide prevention charity says feeling low can happen to any one on any day.

In a bid to uplift the nation as pandemic uncertainties continue, Samaritans encourage people to lend an ear to loved ones after raising a cuppa on Brew Monday.

Emelie Hryhoruk's new artwork 'Listen with love' specially created for Samaritans Brew Monday, encouraging people to reach out to a loved one

Although winter is thought to be one of the harder seasons, with dark days and frosty nights, Samaritans volunteers hear similar concerns all year round from those that contact the charity. 

Chief concerns include mental health and illness (46 per cent), family (34 per cent) and loneliness (28 per cent).

To mark Brew Monday, Julie Walters and Keith Lemon, as well as comedian James Acaster and EastEnders actor Stevie Basaula, featured in a sketch ripping apart last week’s fictional date, instead inviting people to connect with someone over a cuppa and chat any day of any week.