{"id":139320,"date":"2025-08-12T09:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/139320\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T09:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:31:12","slug":"farm-mechanics-drive-tractors-across-uk-for-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/139320\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm mechanics drive tractors across UK for mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr Kitcher admits he and some of his friends have struggled with their mental health<\/p>\n

Three farm mechanics plan to drive vintage tractors from John O’ Groats to Land’s End in to raise money for a mental health charity.<\/p>\n

Billy Kitcher, 23, from Chideock, Dorset, came up with the idea and hopes the challenge will raise awareness of the issues with mental health in the farming industry.<\/p>\n

His friends, Bill Parsons and Jack Macey, from Wootton Fitzpaine, will join him for the 800-mile charity drive which starts in Scotland on 8 September.<\/p>\n

They will raise money for Will Does, a young people’s mental health charity set up in memory of 14-year-old William Paddy, from Dorset.<\/p>\n

Mr Kitcher admits that he and some of his friends have struggled with their mental health and says “there’s not enough help for farmers”.<\/p>\n

He said farmers were “overworked and overthink things”.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s why people have been giving up lately and don’t want to ask for help,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"BillyBilly Kitcher<\/p>\n

The vintage vehicles travel at an average speed of 18mph<\/p>\n

A recent survey by the Farm Safety Foundation found 94% of UK farmers under 40 ranked poor mental health as the biggest hidden problem facing farmers today.<\/p>\n

“I just want to do a bit more to get help for people and raise awareness. There’s not a lot I can do other than do some fundraising,” Mr Kitcher said.<\/p>\n

The trio have raised more than \u00a31,000 so far and Mr Kitcher joked there was a poster with his face on “on every lamp post in the local area”, as friends and family have been showing support.<\/p>\n

Mr Kitcher has 11 vintage tractors that he takes to shows and said he would take an old 1954 Fordson Major for the journey, with Mr Parsons taking a Ford 6710.<\/p>\n

He said getting the old tractors ready has been a “walk in the park”, despite having to completely rebuild the engine on Mr Macey’s Nuffield 10\/60.<\/p>\n

The vintage vehicles travel at an average speed of 18mph and they are hoping other drivers will be forgiving when stuck behind them on the roads.<\/p>\n

Mr Kitcher is anticipating it will take them between five to 10 days to complete the trek, which will see them camping along the route.<\/p>\n

He said it will be a “great experience” for them all, especially for 21-year-old Mr Macey, who “has never left Dorset before”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Kitcher admits he and some of his friends have struggled with their mental health Three farm mechanics…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":139321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[210,517,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-139320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115015102401753930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}