Lee Payton

My professional background is predominantly in finance, accountancy, payroll, and client management, and I’ve spent many years working with businesses and organisations of all different sizes. More recently, my life has taken me in a very different direction. I now spend a huge amount of my time involved in mental health, suicide prevention, community engagement and lived-experience advocacy across Warrington and the wider region. I’m a Lead Facilitator with Andy’s Man Club in Warrington, a PAPYRUS Community Ambassador, soon to be a qualified ASIST Trainer, therapeutic counsellor and involved with a number of local and regional mental-health organisations and projects. I’m also the founder of Surviving the Silence CIC, which I created to use lived experience, conversation, education, and collaboration to challenge the stigma surrounding mental ill health and suicidal ideation. A huge part of what drives me is a simple belief: there should be No Wrong Door when somebody reaches out for help. Radio has unexpectedly become another way of bringing those conversations into our community.

Music can take you somewhere in seconds. A song can remind you of a person, a place, a night out, a relationship, a difficult period of your life or one of the best moments you’ve ever had. My taste is probably best described as a bit of everything. From rivalling the Rock God himself Mr GS, Heavy Metal to the swinging tunes of Jive Bunny and the 60s If a song means something to me, I’ll listen to it — and I’m definitely not ashamed of the occasional guilty pleasure! Celine Dion to West Life to the Vengaboys are all on my playlist. What I’ve particularly enjoyed about radio is discovering the stories behind other people’s music choices. Ask somebody why they chose a particular song and quite often you learn something about them that you would never have discovered otherwise. For me, music and conversation have something very important in common — they connect people.

Because it’s genuinely about the community. My involvement started through the Andy’s Man Club Radio Warrington Takeover, being a guest on the Rock Show and the Culture Show. And somewhere along the way I went from being a guest to helping host, co-host, organise guests, arrange shows, take photographs and, perhaps most importantly, make the brews! The more time I’ve spent at the station, the more I’ve realised how much work happens behind the scenes. Radio Warrington gives local people, charities, community groups, businesses and organisations a platform they might not otherwise have. It’s run by people who genuinely care about Warrington and want to give something back to the town. That fits perfectly with everything I believe in around community, connection, and collaboration. I’m still relatively new to being on the other side of the microphone, and I’ve got plenty to learn, but I’m really enjoying it. And if they’ll keep letting me through the door, I’ll keep turning up!

This is probably something I shouldn’t admit publicly, because my friends and family have already made sure I’ll never live it down. Many years ago, I somehow became the original Mr Warrington. Before anyone gets any ideas about me taking myself too seriously, I should probably explain that my sister entered me as a joke purely to wind me up. Unfortunately for me, the joke backfired slightly when I actually won it! It’s something my friends and family still take great pleasure in reminding me about whenever the opportunity arises — and I’m fairly certain it will eventually make an appearance on Radio Warrington too! And while we’re revealing things I’d perhaps rather keep quiet. I also have a completely irrational dislike of squirrels. There is absolutely no sensible explanation for it. I don’t trust them, I don’t particularly like them, and I’m convinced they’re up to something. So, there you go — former Mr Warrington, reluctant radio presenter and definitely not a friend of the local squirrel population. I’m sure my family will be delighted I’ve finally put all of that in writing!