FORMER Southend United manager Steve Tilson was pleased to help a new sporting podcast kick off their own five-a-side-team.

The Echosport backed ‘Run Free’ has been set up to help those suffering with mental health issues to use exercise to help boost their well-being.

And Tilson was happy to be able to lead their first training session.

“It was really good fun and I really enjoying coming over to take the session,” said Tilson.

“This is an excellent idea and I really hope it can help a lot of people.

“I was only too happy to come over and take a training session and it was a really good group.

“Everyone seemed to enjoy it which is the main thing and it was great to get back out coaching again because we obviously haven’t been able to do that for a while.”

The ‘Run Free’ podcast have had sporting stars Colin Jackson, Gail Emms and Callum Skinner as their first three guests, all of whom have discussed their own mental health battles.

But, on top of that, ‘Run Free’ will also be participating in sporting activities.

And co-founder Eddy Cooper was pleased to have Tilson in charge of the first real get together.

“It was amazing to have Tilly there,” said Cooper.

“When I was growing up he was taking Southend to the Championship so it was a bit surreal to have him taking a session.

“He was a really nice guy, he made the session really fun for us all and hopefully having people like him involved can really help encourage more people to take part too.”

‘Run Free’ will be entering a five-a-side team into a local league as soon as the competitions are allowed to re-start and plans are also in place for a charity cricket match to take place this summer.

Echosport’s Chris Phillips has worked alongside Cooper to create ‘Run Free’ and is keen for as many people as possible to get involved.

“We’ve found that playing sport has been great for our own mental health battles so we’ve put this in place and hope as many people as possible can get involved,” said Phillips.

“Everyone is welcome, it’s all good fun and you certainly don’t need to worry about how good you are at anything. It’s not competitive.”

Anyone who is keen to join in with the scheme and future training sessions can contact officialrunfree@gmail.com for more details or follow @runfreeofficial on Twitter.