Hugh Addison has had a testing time over the past few years, but now he is about to test himself in a different way as he embarks on a sporting challenge in aid of rural mental health.
He grew up on the family's organic dairy farm in Cumbria, which has had a member of the Addison family farming it from the 1540s and which is currently run by Hugh's dad, Chris.
Hugh, with his dad's encouragement, left Cumbria in 2009 to gain some new experiences and studied mechanical engineering at Newcastle University, going on to work in medical technology device development from 2014.
He had been working in that sector, but was looking for ways to get back into farming.
Technology
Hugh says: "I was becoming a lot more interested in the farm, partly through developing technology to treat people who are becoming ill because of their diets or lifestyle, and saw farming, particularly organic farming, as a way to address that."
In 2020, when Covid-19 hit, it gave Hugh, who had been living in Cambridge, the opportunity to work remotely and he headed home to Cumbria.
His dad had a ‘rough time' during the pandemic, says Hugh, dealing with staffing issues, pricing pressures ‘and just did not take a break.' So, in 2021, Hugh and his wife at the time returned home and he resumed his job remotely, while also throwing himself into the farm.
This is where life began to take its toll on Hugh. He says: "I threw myself into the farm completely while working full-time in engineering and spending weekends and evenings on the farm.
Then, as a way of trying to make the farm more sustainable, I started a yoghurt business.
"But I completely burned myself out. I knew I was not in a great spot, but I stuck my head in the sand.
"It reached a peak when my wife left and I was blindsided; it pulled the rug out from under me and I went into a pretty depressive state. I shelved everything with the yoghurt business and took a step back."
At the end of summer in 2022, Hugh moved down to Bristol to try and get his health back on track and he started therapy, which opened the discussion about inter-generational expectations to come back to the farm.
"This is something a lot of families share – you do not want to be the generation to lose the farm," says Hugh.
Fitness and mental health
"I started getting into fitness and worked up to a half Iron Man and I decided I wanted to do something to raise well-being awareness that involved fitness.
"Something I see up here in Cumbria is the isolation and I wanted to open a conversation about mental health."
Out of all of this came the idea for the Borderline Challenge – a route which spans 550 kilometres across land and sea, which Hugh will travel from the Atlantic to the North Sea, with his sister Alex and the help of two friends, Will Sawday and Matt Blott.
His brother Will plans to support the team throughout, too. Fitness helped to bring Hugh out of a troubling period and, to make it even more personal, he has worked out a route that starts at the west coast of Ireland, which ties into his mum's family's farming background, through Cumbria and then to Newcastle, where Hugh and Alex both studied.
All donations will be made to the (RABI).
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Cause
"I could not think of any better cause than doing it for mental health and donating to RABI," says Hugh. His sister Alex has been a constant in Hugh's journey and has long been an advocate for therapy and talking about mental health.
She says: "People go to the gym or to a trainer to get fitter – a therapist is someone who makes your mental health stronger so you can perform better."
Farmers are seen as resilient, but the unseen burdens that rest upon the industry, such as policy changes and weather, can silently build up. And coming on top of that, Hugh says, is isolation.
He can see challenges at Greystone House, too. For the past 20 years, the farm has employed two full-time staff, but this year that is not the case, with the farm now relying on part-time staff.
He says: "Suddenly, labour has become a challenge and there is fragility. Day-to-day, you have to think, ‘right, who is working on what this morning?
"There are not as many people going to auction marts, there are restrictions due to disease, supermarkets are buying direct off farms – that social aspect is dwindling."
Hugh is also keen to highlight how farming can provide an enriching work environment for young people, too and spoke on the subject at the Ark Summit in July, a regenerative agriculture conference, where he sat on a panel about growing future talent.
There is a purpose to farming, he says, and a feeling of having done a day's work, which could give young people a real feeling of worth.
He says: "At the end of the day, you can see the result of what you have done. Being outside, you can also start to appreciate nature and the change of the seasons. Nature-friendly farming is something my dad is into and my grandad was before him.
"We have a swallow's nest in the parlour at the minute and that is a really nice thing.
"It ties into our farming system and we can try and nurture something that has that natural capital."
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Future
As for the future, the siblings still hold a passion for the farm and, although the plan is not clear yet, they are open to new opportunities and looking at regenerative methods – and even the idea of giving new entrants a chance.
But first, they need to complete the challenge, which will see them cycle 140 miles across Ireland, from Sligo to Donaghadee and swim 22 miles from Donaghadee to Portpatrick.
From there, they will cycle 109 miles across southern Scotland to Gretna and finally cross 71 miles of Hadrian's Wall on foot to finish in Tynemouth.
For those who may also be struggling, both Hugh and Alex urge everyone to just take a moment to stop and think about how you may be feeling.
Alex adds: "You may not have access to therapy, but you can always go outside into nature."
