If you watch one video today…make it this one.

George Simpson rowed across the Atlantic in 2005, he is also the brother of submariner Captain Jim Simpson. Unfortunately, in 2020 we lost James, to suicide. The crew’s boat ‘Captain Jim’, is named in his honour.

The aim of this ocean rowing expedition is to work with @rnrmcharity @help.jims.story and @thesubmarinefamily to raise money for mental health support, but also to help normalise talking openly about mental health issues. With that in mind, George has been given the opportunity to ask the HMS Oardacious crew some key questions about mental health, and the rowers have taken time to answer them on video, and send the answers back.

It was hard for the team to answer these questions from the position that they are in, but actually once they started talking, the team found the process cathartic – vocalising and formalising some of their thoughts and feelings, as well as sharing the tools that have helped them with their mental health.

An enormous thank you to George for doing this, and an huge thank you to the crew for being open and honest in the midst of an expedition that is so mentally tough.

End the silence; start the conversation.

Captain Jim.