A befriending scheme to help people rebuild their confidence and recover from mental health difficulties has proved highly successful. Kate Liptrot meets two friends who are among its many success stories.

FOR 23-year-old Rebecca McGrory, life started to get better after she joined York Mind's befriending programme.

Rebecca had become increasingly socially isolated as she recovered from illness, when a mental health nurse suggested she joined the service.

Arriving at the bright offices at York Mind she was paired with 20-year-old York St John University student Caroline Griffin. Most weeks the pair just went out for a coffee, on occasion going to the cinema, and while the programme finished some months ago they have since become close friends.

"It was like a bridging gap," Rebecca said, "I had lost all my social contacts because I was so isolated. It was a big thing for me to get out there again. As soon as you start going out your mental health improves. It gets you out and socialising and doing normal things and rebuilding your confidence."

Now life is much brighter for Rebecca, who has found a job and rebuilt her life and is now even becoming a volunteer at York Mind herself.

Some 160 people aged from 18 to over 70-years-old have gone through the befriending scheme at York Mind, which has become so popular it had to close its waiting list. Its purpose is for volunteer "befrienders" to provide emotional support to adults whose experience of mental health difficulties or emotional distress has left them feeling socially isolated or excluded.

"We found we just enjoyed seeing each other," Caroline said, "I didn't expect we would get on as well as we do. I think this kind of thing is important - going out and meeting people. It's different from a medical professional meeting, it's informal and it's like a real life friendship".

People do not need to have had a formal mental health diagnosis to take part in the York Mind service and, usually, the befriender will not know what their condition is. From one person who went to the cinema for the first time in 20 years, to another who felt confident to use the bus again, seemingly very small steps have made big differences to people's confidence and wellbeing.

Ellie Turpin, the befriending manager, said: "It's the small things people take for granted, but for the people it affects, it's huge."

As the only befriending service in York , and until now funded by the Big Lottery, the future of the befriending service is currently in some doubt due to a lack of funding. York Mind is bidding for further funding at the moment and, if successful, hopes to take more people on.

Hannah Hessle, York Mind's befriending co-ordinator, said: "I think befriending is under rated. The progress you can see people make is incredible and that's just from having support and a compassionate approach. It's consistent in the longer term. We're incredibly passionate about the service and wanting to raise the profile of it."