In April ‘23 I will be walking Hadrian’s Wall with a good friend of mine Ken Brown of DE&S to raise money for charity; a personally important charity and cause for me, having lost my close colleague Capt Jim Simpson during lockdown in 2020.

HELP - Jim's Story has been set up as a fund under the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity (RNRMC) umbrella with the aim of educating, raising awareness and providing a deeper understanding of mental health and the factors that affect wellbeing; as well as providing people with the practical skills and knowledge needed to spot the triggers and signs of poor mental health and give people the confidence to step in and support someone where needed.

The fund has been set up by Jim's family and friends to try and identify and support those who are suffering in silence. Their aim is to prevent another person suffering as Jim did and another family having to deal with such devastation to their lives.

Jim’s death was a huge shock to me and all in the Submarine community. Lockdown affected us all but Jim’s death has been an extremely hard lesson in the fragility of mental health and wellbeing and how hard it can be to spot the signs of someone, or ourselves, struggling to cope.

Ken and I will be using the time walking together to reflect on our own experiences of these issues, our own Mental Health, and to just talk – which so often is the most important first step in tackling a problem.

I hope to use this opportunity to raise funds and awareness of these vitally important issues; the RNRMC will use the HELP - Jim's Story fund to support the Royal Navy and its industry partners to spread this important message through education amongst the service community to help prevent another sailor or Royal Marine finding themselves in the same situation as Jim.

I will be blogging as I go to reflect on some of the specific challenges and what we can all do to help others as well as ourselves.