Man meets strangers in pubs each day at Christmas

A man has been inviting strangers to sit with him in pubs every day in December in his effort to tackle loneliness.

Dean Perryman, from Hockley in Essex, has been reserving empty tables and advertising his whereabouts online.

The 29-year-old says more than 64 people have joined him and he has booked a table at a pub in Rayleigh on Christmas morning.

Mr Perryman felt compelled to run his "empty chair" campaign after his best friend recently took his own life, and he said the response had been "really overwhelming" and "really positive".

"It's very new for me and I've loved every second of it."

Mr Perryman said he was usually "super allergic" to social media, but had been sharing videos as part of his campaign to his 40,000 followers.

He is familiar with getting strangers to meet up; for his day job, he organises events for singletons.

Mr Perryman, who now lives in Stratford in east London, said he had a "real mix" and a "lovely bunch" of people coming to his scheduled meet-ups. He hopes to keep in touch with his new friends.

"I don't want to put myself out there and then disappear after people have had the courage to come out and see me on my own in the pub; I'm not going to leave them behind.

"Sometimes a four-hour conversation like that is a deeper conversation than you might have with a friend that you only see once every four months or whatever, and it's really nice."

Mr Perryman said he had no idea how depressed his good friend was.

"There are so many people out there who live their life seeing multiple empty chairs because they feel lonely," he said.

"I'm not great at a lot of things but I can sit down in the pub and chat so I thought I'd start there."

Mr Perryman arranged a group walk, meeting at the Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park on Christmas Eve morning, followed by a gathering at a pub in Southend-on-Sea in the afternoon.

He has booked tables at pubs in Chelmsford, Hockley and Leigh-on-Sea in the days following Christmas.

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