BGT choir to tour farmers' mental health message

A woman who is part of a farmers' choir hopes its national tour will help spread awareness about mental health in the agricultural industry.

The Hawkstone Farmers' Choir will embark on an 18-venue tour next March, which includes Oxford, York and Bournemouth and follows its historic Britain's Got Talent win in May.

The choir was set up by Oxfordshire farmer and broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson and is made up of farmers and people with strong links to agriculture.

Gwen Woodruffe, from Hampshire who is part of the choir, said: "We're travelling throughout England, Scotland, and Wales... hopefully it'll make people realise that if they need someone to talk to, they can, there's places to go."

The choir recently donated £50,000 of its Britain's Got Talent prize money to charities Mind, RABI, the Farming Community Network (FCN), Shout and the DPJ Foundation, with Clarkson's alcohol brand Hawkstone matching £50,000 to extend its partnership with Shout.

Woodruffe said: "We feel farming is such an isolated industry with people working long hours by themselves and making big decisions," she said.

"Suicide is a massive thing. Everybody in that choir knows somebody who has taken their own life or has tried to.

"So this means an awful lot to us to be able to get the conversation going with people, be it in the farming industry or outside of the farming industry."

She said the choir "can put that message across" on tour, both on the nights and in the lead up to it.

David Smith, who lives in Middleton Cheney near Banbury and has spent 45 years on the amateur stage in and around Oxfordshire, said to perform on "such iconic stages" such as the O2, the Royal Albert Hall, and when they go on tour, the London Palladium, feels "like a dream come true".

He said: "For me personally, being an amateur performer, to appear on some of these iconic venues is just pinch me, pinch me, pinch me!

"We finish [the tour] at the New Theatre Oxford, which is obviously my local big professional theatre. That will be incredible."

Speaking on the impact the choir has had, he said: "We know we have already saved lives, which is incredibly humbling and almost tearful."

The tour will feature songs from their recently-announced debut album, which will be released in November.

Woodruffe said she is feeling "really excited" about the tour.

"I mean, obviously, we're all farmers, and so we've all got work commitments as well," she said.

"So there's going to be some serious thinking about how are we still going to feed our sheep?"