Today, we introduce Dean Arnold, an agricultural engineer and farmer from Monmouthshire who has shown remarkable courage in choosing to share his story with us.
Until the evening we met him at the Royal Countryside Fund’s Farm Resilience Programme workshop, Dean had never spoken about his experience of suicide ideation to anyone, not even to his wife, Helen. After our Get A Head in Farming session, he approached us to say thank you, not for the statistics or the slides, but for presenting these conversations in a way that felt gentle, honest and real.
Throughout the workshop, Dean was someone we quietly noticed: the way he listened, the moments where certain points seemed to land with particular weight. Later, he told us that after watching one of the videos, he recognised how closely his own experience mirrored what he had just heard. And for the first time, he felt ready to talk…
Dean chose to share his story in the hope that someone, somewhere, might recognise themselves in it and understand that they are not alone. That there is a way back and that there is always hope.
