What makes us happy?

Brighton-based Aidan Goatley is taking himself on a journey around the UK to discover if people are genuinely happy and what it is that makes them happy.
Aidan GoatleyAidan Goatley
Aidan Goatley

He came up with the idea while working in a charity shop in the Guildbourne Centre, Worthing.

“My plan is to visit the Google centre of each county as this would give me a totally random destination. For example Kent has come up as the exercise yard of HMP Maidstone.”

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The tour will also be going to Edinburgh Fringe Festival but before that Aidan is due to appear on BBC Songs of Praise. His wife is training to become a vicar, though Aidan is an atheist, he points out.

Aidan will be working alongside the men’s mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). CEO Simon Gunning has given Aidan his personal approval for the tour and CALM will be lending their support. As well as meeting people and gigging, Aidan will be doing several live streams on social media and filming interviews and experiences with CALM.

Relying on goodwill and very little funding, he is reaching out to companies who will sponsor or support the tour in some way. He is also juggling the tour dates between being a husband, father and his job as a carer.

Spokeswoman Ruth Harrison Roberts said: “This is a delightfully silly comedy tour but Aidan’s overall aim is to get people talking. It is well documented that suicide remains the single biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK. This project is aimed at getting men to communicate the issues that they are struggling with, and the medium of comedy is an easy introduction for everyone to use. The tour will see proceeds from gigs going to CALM.” www.happybritainproject.com.

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Aidan will be performing at The Duke of Wellington, Brighton on July 13.

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