LIVING in a small town, Wasleys resident Tom Laintoll felt isolated when dealing with the loss of his wife of more than 40 years.

The retiree, who moved to the town 25 years ago, was heavily involved in the community, but felt he had noone to talk to about what he had been through.

That was until he started the ‘Blokes of Wasleys’ men’s group – a way for the men in the town to get together and talk outside of the pub and the sporting club.

“You feel a bit isolated when you cop something pretty severe,” Mr Laintoll said.

“Over the last few years a lot of us have been left by ourselves, so all of a sudden there’s this big vacuum in your life.

“Blokes don’t tend to open up a lot, especially when they’re at a function or something similar; they don’t talk about personal things, they just keep it inside.

“I think it (the group) is healthier than just going down to the pub, it gets blokes out of an environment where you all talk the same language.”

Mr Laintoll said the group owed a lot to Dawn Richter and Robert Sellick from the Wasleys General Store, who helped spread the word about the initiative to the men around town.

“I’m surprised, I was a bit hesitant to start with because I’m not an extroverted bloke myself,” he said.

“I thought ‘what am I getting myself in to?’ because I had only lost my wife around 15 months ago.

“But when I got talking to a couple of blokes who had been in the same boat, and had major health problems themselves, I found blokes were only willing to talk.

“That’s been good and it’s just snowballed, it’s got off the ground far quicker than I thought it would.”

The Blokes of Wasleys meet at 9am every second Saturday, with no age restrictions on members.