One Claas combine harvester and four farmers who have suffered the loss of close friends to suicide, covered 940 miles in four “and a bit” days.
The group of four, Olly Harrison, John Branson, James Baldini and Martin Williams, took turns in driving the length of the UK at 20mph in early June, all in the name of mental health awareness.
As of this week, the total raised on the ‘John O’Groats to Land’s End’ JustGiving page is £71,719, but Olly Harrison told Agriland that the total actually “stands around £87,000” – which blows their original target of £10,000 out the window.
“It wasn’t about the money, it was about awareness and getting people talking about mental health, and answering truly when someone asks how are you?” Harrison, who came second in a ‘Top 10 list of agri-influencers in the UK‘ study earlier this year, said.
“It’s the biggest lie in the world saying I’m fine or ok. We want people to say when they’re not.
“One of the easiest ways to answer that is as a percent. So if someone says how are you, you’d say 100% or 80%. It’s just so easy and that starts the conversation.”
In partnership with Mind mental health charity, the group believes the tragic losses they’ve experienced could have been avoided by talking and communicating so the four are “are doing their best to raise awareness of this big problem country-wide”.
The funds the group have raised will be getting divided between two charities, Mind mental health and Children with Cancer UK, the latter chosen by Claas, which supported the lads throughout.
Harrison, who runs the successful vlog ‘Ollyblogs agricontract farmer’, told us the support they experienced was overwhelming.
“Five o’clock in the morning in the highlands of Scotland, people were stood at the side of the road waving us on,” he said.
“People were bringing combines out and parking them on bridges, we were going past tractors with displays of machinery in and all the augers out, it was like a guard of honour.”
Keeping the environment in mind, the Claas combine that was used on the charity run was fueled by a fossil-free fuel hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) that was sponsored by Certas Energy.
Over the 940 miles the combine only used 1,580L of HVO; according to Harrison the volume of fuel used would take around six minutes to harvest.
