STUDENTS at Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) have been encouraged to ‘Check on their mates’.

As part of the college’s health and wellbeing programme, the team from 5asideCHESS and The Battling Suicide Bus visited the campus yesterday (Wednesday) to get students talking about mental health.

The short-form chess game gave students the chance to reconnect by creating a space to try something new or share expertise.

Ryan Child, playmaker from 5asideCHESS, said: “The game of chess is just one element of what we do.

“We want people to actually just sit down and talk to each other about what is going in with their mental wellbeing and check in on their mates.”

The Battling Suicide bus is travelling the UK for 10 months.