The World Sauna Forum is proud to welcome Polly Wilson, Freddie Mehigan, and Charlie Duckworth to this year’s programme, representing some of the world’s most important voices in community-led sauna.
Together, they offer a unique, lived perspective on a growing grassroots movement – with Freddie and Charlie working at the systemic level to build a national network, and Polly embedded in day-to-day delivery, learning what it means to design sauna not as a product, but as care.
Polly Wilson | Community Sauna Baths CIC Talk: From Social Prescribing to Practice: What Community Sauna Can Teach Us About Access, Health, and Inclusion
Polly Joy Wilson is the Social Prescribing and Community Manager at Community Sauna Baths CIC, where she leads NHS-linked outreach and inclusion programmes across multiple London sites. Her work focuses on widening access to sauna for people experiencing health inequalities, isolation, and social exclusion – and the programme has now supported over 500 individuals referred through healthcare and third-sector services.
With a background in community theatre and education, Polly works at the intersection of embodied practice, public health, and community care. She facilitates regular sauna ritual and storytelling sessions drawing on training in Lithuanian pirtis traditions, and has contributed to published research exploring sauna ritual as a form of social prescribing.
In her session, Polly moves beyond outcomes data to explore what conditions are actually required for sauna to function as a relational, preventative health space. Drawing on ongoing evaluation work developed in collaboration with interdisciplinary researcher Rachael McGrath, she combines emerging evidence with lived experience from participants including people seeking asylum, unpaid carers, and individuals in addiction recovery.
The session addresses what real inclusion looks like in practice – from supported entry and group-based attendance to culturally responsive facilitation and the human capacity to hold the space. It also honestly examines where well-intentioned sauna provision can fail. Participants will leave with practical tools and delivery models that can be adapted across different sauna contexts.
Freddie Mehigan | Community Sauna Network Talk: Grassroots Sauna Unity
Freddie Mehigan leads the Community Sauna Network (CSN), a UK-wide Community Interest Company dedicated to supporting and empowering not-for-profit and grassroots sauna projects. His work focuses on developing sustainable, community-led wellbeing spaces through practical guidance, coaching, and knowledge-sharing.
With a background spanning community youth work, performance, and sustainability-focused enterprise, Freddie brings commercial awareness alongside emotional intelligence and a deep commitment to social impact.
Launched in January 2025, the CSN has already heard from over 150 people seeking advice on setting up community sauna spaces – across the UK and as far afield as Australia, the US, and Europe. Three member sites opened in 2025, with ten more anticipated across the UK in 2026.
In his session, Freddie explores what it takes to build a collective movement in a market still shaped by misconceptions, planning barriers, and limited regulation. He will speak candidly about navigating council negotiations, making the case for sauna as a public health asset, and advocating locally and nationally for dedicated spaces for community sauna. The session reflects on what the network has learned so far – and what it means to position community sauna as part of the social and cultural fabric of the UK.
Charlie Duckworth | Community Sauna Baths CIC
Joining Polly and Freddie at the forum is Charlie Duckworth, co-founder and Managing Director of Community Sauna Baths CIC. Charlie will be present throughout the event for networking, workshop support, and panel contributions – bringing with him the operational depth and strategic perspective that has helped shape one of the UK’s most ambitious community sauna projects.
His presence at the forum reflects Community Sauna Baths’ broader commitment to contributing to the global sauna conversation – not just through formal presentations, but through the kind of peer exchange and cross-border dialogue that events like the World Sauna Forum make possible.
The World Sauna Forum is delighted to platform this work as part of a growing global conversation around sauna, health, and community. All three are not to be missed.
