Herefordshire farmer's mental health charity to combat isolation

A farmer has set up a mental health charity for people working in agriculture after struggling with the loneliness and isolation of the job.

Sam Stables said he tried to take his own life due to the pressures of life on his farm in Herefordshire.

He has since founded We Are Farming Minds with his wife Emily and they have received £140,000 from the National Lottery.

The money will help pay for a 24-hour helpline manned by volunteers.

It will also allow training on how to spot the signs of mental illness for vets and people working in farming.

The charity is also planning to offer counselling and social events to help to reduce isolation.

More than a third of people in farming in the UK could be suffering from depression, according to research on wellbeing in agriculture.

Mr Stables, from Aconbury near Hereford, said he wanted to break the stigma of mental health pressures in rural communities.

"It can be a very lonely job and I think Covid and lockdown has given the wider general British public an idea of what isolation really is and this is something farmers have suffered for generations. It certainly has a terrible effect on your mental health really," he said.

Talking to someone before he really began to struggle would have helped, Mr Stable said, before he felt he was in a "horrendous... no-way-back situation".

"We've got one of the highest suicide rates in any industry and that money is definitely needed, and hopefully we'll see some real positive reactions from that money and the pressure's on to make it work," he said.

"It's a massive responsibility for us. We have to try and make it work and we will do our very best for that to happen."

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