Man Hosts 1,000 Pub Meetups After Friend's Suicide

Dean Perryman had just lost his best friend Rob Clancy to suicide when he decided no one else should ever feel that alone. So the 30-year-old from East London put on a bright orange hoodie and headed to his local pub with a simple invitation: come sit with me.

That was December 2023. Today, Perryman has hosted his 1,000th "Empty Chairs" meetup.

The concept is beautifully simple. Perryman posts on social media about when and where he'll be sitting in a pub or restaurant, always in that same bright orange hoodie so he's easy to spot. Then he waits for whoever needs company to show up.

"When I started, it came from such a place of sadness," Perryman told news agency SWNS. "To see how this simple idea has been able to help so many people has been really nice."

What began in London and Essex quickly spread across the UK as volunteers started hosting their own Empty Chairs events. Now meetups happen regularly in Manchester, Bedford, Cambridge, Leeds, York, and more. The campaign has even reached Colombia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia.

Perryman, who works for team-building game company Chicken Rush, has personally attended 61 of these gatherings. He says there's no typical attendee. Young and old, men and women, longtime locals and newcomers all show up.

Why This Inspires

What makes Empty Chairs special is what happens at those tables. Some people arrive desperate to talk about struggles they've been carrying alone. Others come because they have the emotional capacity to listen and support someone else.

Perryman says his favorite moments are watching men open up about their troubles. "Like a lot of men, he wasn't the biggest sharer," Perryman said about his friend Rob. "He was very much the life and soul of anywhere you went, but he wasn't someone who would be the first to open up."

Now Perryman is creating exactly the kind of space Rob might have needed. People discuss the isolation of living in big cities, relationship struggles, career worries, or just the everyday challenge of feeling lonely. Everything shared at the table stays at the table.

In smaller rural towns, the same faces often return week after week. Real friendships form that last well beyond that first meetup.

Perryman has 200 more events already scheduled and no plans to stop. "No matter who you are, there is a place for you," he said. "Whoever needs the space is welcome to come."

He hopes Empty Chairs will become a lasting legacy for Rob, the kind, sweet friend who struggled to share when life felt heavy. Through one simple idea and an orange hoodie, Perryman is making sure others don't face their darkest moments alone.