Of late, I’ve found myself reflecting upon The Borderline Challenge which my sister, Alex, and I completed earlier this year. An ultra-triathlon that follows a route spanning the breadth of the British and Irish Isles from Ireland’s Atlantic coast to England’s North Sea shore. It is undertaken with a sole aim – to raise awareness of farming’s bogeyman: its shockingly poor record on mental health. In tackling this challenge, we sought to get people talking about this emotive subject whilst raising funds for the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute (RABI) and their mission to provide support to farming families going through life’s muck.
Though the Borderline Challenge is now not much more than a memory, our mission continues. The year’s training, planning, and promotion is behind us and we’ve enjoyed the return of lie-ins and excuses for not going out to do that run in the rain. This ultra-triathlon of our own design was a total occupation throughout 2025. Now we are spared the 5:45am alarms, logistical clashes, and financial pressures that came with the challenging territory.
And yet, this may not be the case if most of your mornings already involve the daily grind of milking, mending, or tending. Though the changing seasons of the farming calendar bring fresh tasks, they’re consistent in being relentless and providing novel trials on a daily basis. One of the key aims of our challenge was to draw attention to the pressures on British farmers today – specifically the invisible ones. The triathlon may be behind us, but there is often no end point for those who feed us and look after the land that frames our lives.
The statistics around farmer’s mental health make for bleak reading. Clarkson’s Farm has done a great job of bringing this issue to the attention of viewers, many of whom have gained a newfound appreciation for the toll applied by changing weather, politics, and financial markets. 95% of farmers under forty consider mental health to be the most significant hidden challenge facing the industry. Farming suicide rates rank amongst the highest of any profession and its dire safety record makes agriculture the UK’s most dangerous industry.
The past few years have been even more challenging for a sector which is all too familiar with turmoil. The UK has just endured its hottest ever spring and summer. Though Cumbria was spared the worst of this year’s drought, we’re likely to feel the resultant elevated costs as winter dawns – adding to a stratospheric agricultural inflation rate. Inheritance Tax and subsidy changes will also continue to gnaw at future farm plans. While a dwindling workforce will apply its own pressures in maintaining day-to-day operations. It’s challenging and therefore no surprise that anxiety and depression silently wreak havoc behind closed farm gates. This is before the spectres of intergenerational expectation, succession, and the bank manager get involved.
Despite these pressures, those who work in farming are famed for their resilience and strength of character: stoicism – a rare quality that we should celebrate and draw strength from. For this, I look to my own father. A man capable of digging deep and focusing on getting through the day, no matter how much of life’s manure stands in his way. This resilience is admirable and is a trait shared by many of his peers. It underpins not just individual farms like ours, but also, our wider food supply chain.
But even stoics have their limits. Limits which are being tested by a very specific feature in farming – the need to be busy. The thing with resilience is that it is finite, nobody can or should be expected to depend on it for the longterm and yet that’s exactly what we demand of farmers. Farmers fill every waking moment to keep up with their farming neighbours, the overdrafts, and the regulations. Often without consideration for the necessity to take a break, make time for ourselves, or share concerns with loved ones.
I know this, because I have been that person. I worked myself to the bone and had nothing left in my reserve tank when a relationship I’d relied on inevitably gave way. The journey back from that dark place has taken three years and honest conversations with myself, my friends, and my family. It’s been heartening to realise that I wasn’t alone and the pressure I applied was driven as much from within as outside. Opening up about my own mental breakdown has been a source of strength and the foundation for rebuilding myself.
The Borderline Challenge aimed to raise awareness of the challenge of poor mental wellbeing in the farming community. It’s a topic which often goes unacknowledged, though on closer inspection is often all too evident – rates of suicide are, very sadly, elevated among farming communities. Though our journey is now almost complete, there is a long way to go to truly recognise and address these issues and indeed their root causes.
Image c/o The Farmers Guardian.
Hugh and Alex Addison, are a brother-and-sister duo from Cumbria and who took on an extraordinary endurance challenge in September 2025. With the help of a few friends, Matt Blott and Will Sawday, they crossed the British Isles (Ireland and Britain) using nothing but human power. Their final step on this journey will be held at Rheged, near Penrith, courtesy of Westmorland Ltd. On January the 30th, 2026 we plan to share our journey through the medium of film and bring this conversation back to the community we call home. Tickets are still available through Rheged’s website with all proceeds going to the RABI. You can also still donate to the cause via our JustGiving page.
If you are in a difficult place, please do speak to those around you and do not shy away from professional help. Give the RABI a ring on 0800 188 4444. Their service is amazing, free, and confidential.
0 Comments