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Mum retires from cafe set up in son's memory

James GrantNorthamptonshire
News imageCarroll Weston/BBC Denise Mackay with blonde hair, wearing an olive blazer and a pashmina. She is sitting at a wooden table on a red chair looking at the camera.Carroll Weston/BBC
Denise Mackay says the cafe provides an ambience of "friendship and love"

The founder of a community cafe that provides mental health counselling is stepping down after 11 years at the helm.

Johnny's Happy Place in Kettering, Northamptonshire, was set up in 2014 by the family of Johnny Mackay, who died aged 29 after years of drug and alcohol addiction and undiagnosed mental health issues.

His mother, Denise Mackay, 78, said she had decided to retire for health reasons, but the cafe, on Rockingham Road, would go on.

"Even though I didn't want to walk away, I knew that I had to because I couldn't put the energy and the effort into all the things that I did successfully," she told Annabel Amos on BBC Radio Northampton.

News imageJohnny's Happy Place An old photo of a woman in a white shirt with her head resting on the shoulder of a man in a red and white chequered shirt. In the background there are rushes and a field. Johnny's Happy Place
Denise Mackay (left) said that her son Johnny (right) struggled with addiction and mental health problems before his death

Following Johnny's death, his family and friends felt they should do something in his memory and two months later they were offered space in a building on Rockingham Road.

In the summer of 2015, the cafe opened as a community interest company run by a board which included Denise and her daughter Charlotte.

It is open on weekends and offers free sessions with trained counsellors, and art therapy.

"[Visitors] lap up the atmosphere that we have created... and they just love the ambience that we have sorted out for them," Denise added.

"They just have friendship and love."

News imageJohnny's Happy Place Two women stand side by side in front of a large sign for Johnny’s Happy Place. On the left is a woman wearing a black outfit with thin white grid lines and a red poppy pin. She is holding up a framed certificate with both hands. On the right is a woman wearing a black jacket, a dark green patterned scarf and a red poppy. She has her hands clasped in front of her and is smiling broadly at the camera.Johnny's Happy Place
Denise Mackay (right) and her daughter Charlotte (left), along with family and friends, run Johnny's Happy Place

Messages from volunteers and visitors were played to Denise on BBC Radio Northampton to mark her retirement.

Richard Austin Hall-Trafford, who has visited the cafe for seven years, said it had been a "lifeline" and had "saved his life" on several occasions.

Jackie said she had found the cafe "very helpful", while Kelly said she "doesn't believe for one minute" Denise would fully retire, adding she was "so happy and proud" to have worked alongside her.

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