A GROUP of teenagers are taking to the streets of Bury in a bid to raise awareness of mental health issues.

The 10-strong group, who come from across Greater Manchester, have been partnered with Bury Cancer Support Centre as part of the government-run National Citizen Service: The Challenge scheme.

They were tasked with creating a project that was related to the charity, and last week carried out a town centre survey to assess residents’ awareness of mental health issues.

Team member Eleanor Kay, aged 16, said the group was passionate about changing attitudes around the subject.

The former Woodhey High School pupil, of Whittingham Drive, Ramsbottom, said: “As a team we thought mental health would be a good topic to focus on, because a lot of cancer patients and their families or carers will suffer from depression or other issues.

“And not only is it something that we felt was closely related to cancer, but it’s also a subject that people aren’t always comfortable talking about.

“When we went out to run the survey, we found that the majority of people strongly agreed that that mental health issues were a big problem in the UK, but those same people didn’t know a lot about the subject or talk about it regularly.”

On Saturday, September 26, the group is planning to return to the town centre for the next stage of their project.

As well as holding games and handing out leaflets, they will be asking shoppers to put their footprints on a display poster.

The group has also worked with Irwell Valley Housing as part of the NCS scheme, after two weeks of team building activities in Scotland and at Manchester University.

Eleanor, who will begin her A-level studies at Holy Cross College next month, added: “We have now started this little campaign from the project to get people speaking more openly and honestly about mental health problems.

“We think it’s important to make people more aware of the issues and of the support systems that are available out there.”