A TEENAGER has set up a charity which aims to use music and dance to help people with mental health difficulties.

Ché Lindor, aged 19, has set up Depart The Black Dog, which will be based in Hereford and initially serve people in the county.

The focus of the charity is to help people get involved in music, dance and socialising to promote good mental health.

Ché said: "I decided to start this charity, having been a musician for a number of years. I am aware that it is well-documented that music and the arts generally serves a good purpose in bringing people together.

"Music, in particular, transcends all barriers and differences and helps to ease emotional and social difficulties. It is one of those arts in which both the recipient and the provider can be enriched."

He started learning to play the drums when he was nine-years-old but following an unplanned move to Herefordshire from Devon, he became upset and lost all interest in music.

Ché said: "Then, one day I had an impromptu guitar lesson over the phone and made the connection that music made me very happy.

"I was bought a new set of drums, started playing guitar again and found a brilliant guitar tutor in Leominster who encouraged me to join a band as a drummer, which he later recorded.

"That band was Fault Line. While still at school we did many gigs and were given many opportunities, including a live recording with Andrew Marston and Andy O’Hare of BBC Introducing."

He is now in a new band called Hedgehog and the Clementines and will be playing a set at Depart The Black Dog pre-launch, together with Hot Feat from Hereford and Cleo Lindor from Huddersfield.

The charity aims to bring people suffering mental health difficulties together, where they can share their stories and help each other.

Ché said: "We are aware that there is a significant mental illness issue in Herefordshire but there is also a wealth of great musicians who are already doing a great deal to promote good mental health - both in the UK and abroad.

"Depart The Black Dog hopes to provide a coordinated way in which these two elements can be consistently brought together.

"We also want to be able to teach and encourage others to take up a musical instrument as a way to promote their own good mental health, while at the same time helping others."

The pre-launch is at Play nightclub on August 31 at 7pm. Tickets are £5.

For more information email chelindor@btinternet.com or to donate to the Crowdfunding campaign go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/departtheblackdog