A farmer and mental health activist has started his 142-mile (229km) walk from Herefordshire to London to raise awareness for the struggles faced by the farming community.
Sam Stables, co-founder of We Are Farming Minds, set off from Ross on Wye Market on Monday morning and will walk about 30 miles (48km) a day before reaching The Farmers Club in London on Friday.
The walk has been done in partnership with the Farm Safety Foundation – Yellow Wellies and its Mind Your Head campaign.
“It’s really important to me, not just my own personal struggles with mental health but I’m also aware British farming is in crisis,” he said before setting off.
Stables added: “It’s incredibly real and what farmers are facing, farming families, is unprecedented and I want to make the general public aware of what farmers are going through.
“A farmer a week takes their own life and certainly, it’s really, really important to raise awareness, but it’s also a message of hope that there is support out there.
“There are some incredible charities and some amazing people to talk to if you are in that dark place.”
Research by the Farm Safety Foundation has found that 95% of farmers under 40 believe mental health is the biggest hidden issue facing the industry today.
Stables said he wanted his walk to raise awareness for what farmers went through each day [BBC]
Stables’ walk will see him trek solo, which he said would “represent the isolation” faced by farmers as they “often feel like they’re on their own”.
“I’m also going to carry a backpack to portray all the different things farmers carry on their back, often on their own in isolation,” he explained.
And the sheep farmer will also be dependent on farming families to take him in each night.
He said this would show “the togetherness of the community”.
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