Guiding sons, fathers, brothers, and friends

WESTERN Bulldogs Community Foundation men’s health and fitness program Sons of the West is returning to Ballarat for its sixth year this month.

SOTW is run in municipalities across western Victoria, with the local program organised annually in collaboration with Sports Central and the City of Ballarat.

Starting on Wednesday, 16 March, the program will consist of ten weekly sessions of physical activity, socialising, and educational health seminars at Phoenix Community College in Sebastopol.

The program is open to men over 18, and Sports Central Programs Manager, Andrew Milligan, said his team are primed and ready to deliver their best year yet.

“We’ve an excellent staff that we’ve put together for the program. They know it inside out which means they can deliver a really polished experience.”

Mr Milligan said the program will run “as per norm” with the exception of the cooking lessons, which has been dropped in order to maintain COVID safety.

Each session runs from 7pm to 9.15pm, with the first hour focusing on men’s health awareness followed by physical activities like footy or basketball.

Health experts and community organisation representatives are brought in as guest speakers, and topics range from mental fitness to gender equality to cancer awareness.

The program is designed for members to stay on for up to three years, and previous participant, Kevin Flynn, was disappointed that he couldn’t continue with the group beyond this limit.

Involved with SOTW from 2017 to 2019, Mr Flynn said his experiences with the program gave him the knowledge and confidence to make “educated decisions” when he was diagnosed with cancer.

“What we’d learned during my time in the SOTW program actually became very relevant for me. Because of those sessions, I didn’t go into my treatments overly scared,” he said.

“There’s more important things in life than going around being the big He-Man, and saying she’ll be right.

“It’s just a matter of taking care of yourself and your health and letting go of that kind of ridiculous masculinity so that you’re around a little longer for your family.”

After several months of hormone and radiation therapy, Mr Flynn looks to be cancer-free.

Mr Milligan said that despite initial hesitancy from some of the men, the program generally leaves a positive impact on those who come through their doors.

“Sometimes the men feel like they’ve walked into a health program, and they probably find that a bit more challenging than women,” he said.

“But once they’re there, they realise they’re in a room with other men that are there for the same reasons. We break the ice pretty quickly.”

The program operated with limited numbers last year, and this year see SOTW running once more at full capacity.

Members will need to register prior to arriving.

The women’s equivalent of the program, Daughters of the West, is also expected to run twice this year, with the first run starting in July.