The Big Walk and Talk in memory of Dale Harris

There is a stretch of canal between Chadderton and Hollingworth Lake that has seen a lot of conversations. Some of them light, some of them the kind that only happen when you're moving, when you're side by side, looking ahead instead of at each other, and somehow the words seem to come easier.

This summer, Georgia Harris and a group of friends are walking that canal in memory of her husband Dale. They are asking everyone in Oldham and beyond to walk it with them.

Georgia Harris said "Dale talked. He had people around him who loved him. He was one of the warmest, most caring people you could ever meet, happy, funny, and always the first to suggest a walk with his friends. He wasn't someone who seemed to be struggling. He seemed, to most people, just fine.

That's exactly the point!

Mental health isn't only about visible depression and isn't always the person who looks broken. Sometimes it's the person who looks like they have everything together, proud, capable, loved, and still carrying something too heavy to put into words. Pride is a powerful thing and society tells people, men especially that needing help is weakness. It isn't, it never was."

The Big Walk & Talk takes place on Saturday 1st August 2026, setting off from Chadderton FC at 8am and following the Rochdale Canal towpath to Hollingworth Lake and back. Twenty-six miles. Flat. Free. Open to everyone.

You don't need to know Dale. You don't need to do the full distance. You just need to care about the people you've lost, the people who are struggling quietly right now, or simply about what happens when a community decides to show up together.

Georgia Harris & the organising group added  "We're not doing this to raise money. We're doing this because walking and talking is the most natural thing in the world and men need to do more of it. If just one person has a conversation on this walk that they wouldn't have had otherwise, it will have been worth every step.

Dale talked. But society didn't do enough. We can do more. We must do more. And that starts with changing what we think mental health looks like."

In the UK, three in four suicides are men. Most never asked for help not because help wasn't there, but because the conversation never happened. The Big Walk & Talk exists to change that. One step, one word, one August morning at a time.

Join at any point along the route including The Ship Inn at Middleton, The Hopwood, The Blue Pits Inn at Castleton, or Hollingworth Lake itself, or simply come to Chadderton FC at the end of the day.

Everyone is welcome.

All they ask is please wear something yellow..

Please see event details here https://fb.me/e/85BWemkp5

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