This is the story of four men in a boat and a tandem rickshaw…and another boat! The world’s first iconic challenge, a world first…on home soil.
Forget the End of the World at John O’Groats! The southernmost point of the British Isles is actually the Les Minquiers Islands, south of Jersey, off the coast of France, while the northernmost point is the Out Stack, a rocky outcrop on the northern tip of Shetland. A journey of 1200 kilometers.
One of us (Kevin), a psychologist and best-selling author, realized in 2021 that no one had made this journey, but no one had thought about it. Intrigued, he began to recruit three like-minded people to join him in this epic quest. Billy Taylor, an experienced ocean rower, came in and agreed to skip the rowing sections. A former paramedic and firefighter, Billy has developed a love for ocean paddling and has now crossed many of the world’s oceans under his steam.
They will be joined on the journey by Patrick Neale, who, with his partner, Polly, run Jaffe & Neale, an independent bookshop in Chipping Norton. Having recently retired from playing rugby at the local club, Patrick jumped at the chance to join Kevin and the boys on a South North Adventure, especially as he loves to encourage children and young people to learn.
The last member of the group is Gary Hutchings. Gary is originally from north Devon, where he runs his own business, and is a very successful seafarer and adventurer.
Kevin was finally able to persuade his wife, Elaine, who is also a psychologist and mental health researcher, to help plan this epic trip – his greatest achievement yet! We are both interested in making this app a celebration of resilience and mental health of young people and aim to develop a unique research project based on what young people, themselves, have to say. It’s all about listening to their intentions, their ideas, their intentions. We want to bring the lived experience of the nation’s youth to the heart of the research process and we couldn’t think of a better partner than MQ – the Mental Health Research Organization to make this happen. More on that later.
The team will start by rowing around 300 kilometers from Les Minquers to Portsmouth, through Jersey, and then from Scrabster, in the north of Scotland, to Out Stack. In the meantime, they will travel 900 kilometers around the world in their custom-made tandem rickshaw from Portsmouth Harbor to Scrabster.
We reached out to 10 wonderful charity partners (who agreed to work with the team. The idea is that Kevin and the boys will talk to young people at our 10 ‘meet and greet’ charity centers around the country to discuss what they think mental health researchers should investigate. We will then prepare a research proposal after the new trip and aim to follow these questions with a scientific trip that will lead to a formal national research and hopefully get this official national group study. of people.
All our charity partners are involved in supporting young people in one way or another. In Jersey, the team will meet people from All Child Our Future this year who are highlighting the importance of reading mental health books and stories and building resilience. On a similar theme, the 1851 Trust they will be meeting in Portsmouth emphasizes the role of education and critical thinking skills in giving young people the upper hand in life. Then head to London in a tandem-rickshaw where they will talk to the youth of Women in Sport about the role of sports and exercise in building confidence and resilience in young girls; the Big Kid Foundation will be in Brixton to discuss the impact of knife crime on young people and how we can reduce it. Their sponsor, chef Michel Roux, will present the group with frozen boeuf bourguignon to be eaten at the end of the trip. From Brixton, it heads to Oxford, accompanied part way by Susie Dent, a Guide Dogs patron, who will cycle alongside the group and introduce them to young visually impaired people who will discuss how they cope with this type of difficulty. It was then on to Sheffield where the team planned to arrive in time for the World Snooker Championship where several of the top players would introduce themselves to their chosen organization Jessie May, which supports the end of life support for young people dealing with terminal illness. Kevin will interview young people and their families about how they deal with these serious concerns. The team will then head to the Yorkshire village of Bramhope where they will be treated to a cream tea with the Brownlee triathletes and a visit to the Brownlee Foundation who use exercise and sport to build resilience in young people. Along the way, the team will be joined by Bikeability and Heavy Metal Truants who focus on cycling and physical activity to promote wellness.
At every meeting, across the country Kevin and the team will listen to children and young people and ask them what they believe should be the focus of mental health research to build their resilience and prevent the onset of mental health problems. We can’t wait to hear their ideas, and which ones can be turned into an active research project. The team will then speak to leading researchers and youth ambassadors from MQ at a final ‘meet and greet’ in Edinburgh. They will discuss these ideas and consider how we can create a collaborative research project based on all these conversations and discussions – a truly new way of bringing children’s lived experiences to the heart of the research process. This is one of the reasons why MQ is one of the trusted partners of the south and north team.
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