Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect…a week in the life of our cause-driven communications consultancy 

Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 35 in England and Wales. 

It’s a pretty sobering statistic but perhaps one that demonstrates why days like next Wednesday’s World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September) are so important. 

2024’s Prevention Day carried particular significance for the team at Cause as it provided a launch platform for A Great British Odyssey for our client, the endurance athlete Angus Collins. 

Already bestowed with the title of the world’s most successful ocean rower, Angus was planning to row solo, unsupported and unassisted around Great Britain - not just to conquer the UK’s treacherous coastline but to raise £250,000 for charity James’ Place which provides support for men in suicidal crisis. 

Having battled his own mental health issues and an attempted suicide five years ago, Angus is now a keen mental health advocate who wants to help ensure men can get the support they need - quickly. 

He set off on A Great British Odyssey from Portsmouth Harbour on 28 June this year, aboard bespoke ocean rowing boat ‘Goosander’ and was making strong progress before a broken footplate saw him beached in Cornwall for a number of days. In fixing the footplate, Angus could no longer claim that the challenge was unsupported but he valiantly pushed on, almost reaching the Bristol Channel before unfavourable and potentially dangerous wind systems reared their head. 

Angus on his boat Goosander before departing Portsmouth Harbour

Red-dot watchers (avid Odyssey viewers were able to track his progress online and view his beautiful and emotional video updates on Instagram) could begin to see the toll that these obstacles were causing but supported Angus from afar as he decided to restart the row yet again - this time from Oban on the west coast of Scotland. 

As the adventure progressed challenges mounted beyond the waves. Beset by equipment issues and incoming Storm Floris, Angus made the courageous decision to draw the challenge to a close. In his own words: “This might be the end of the expedition, but it’s not the end of the journey.”

So as we approach this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day, we want to honour Angus whose efforts remind us that true courage lies not only in conquering frontiers but in acknowledging when to stop, heal and reflect on how far we’ve come. 

As it stands, Angus has raised an incredible £152,000 for James’ Place who require around £2,000 to support one man through suicidal crisis. That’s over 70 lives that can potentially be saved and is a legacy he should be so very proud of.  

Even without breaking a record, Angus has already succeeded in his mission to smash the stigma around mental health and to raise essential funds for his chosen charity. There is little doubt that in sharing his own vulnerabilities in real time he will have helped countless men feel less alone in the face of their struggles. 

You can read more about Angus’ courageous decision to call time on A Great British Odyssey in Row 360. And if you’d like to donate to A Great British Odyssey in honour of World Suicide Prevention Day, you can do so at Angus’ Just Giving Page. 

Still on the topic of mental health and wellbeing - in the week when many pupils returned to school, Chloe Jones, a Youth Advisory Board Member for client OnSide, was interviewed by LBC’s Ben Kentish about her decision to home school herself. Producers had read Chloe’s fascinating story in June’s iconic edition of the Big Issue Young Team Takeover which had been entirely put together by Chloe and other young people from the youth charity. 

We were also pleased to place Jane Harris, vice chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, on Nick Ferrari’s morning show. Jane was responding to claims made in a new report from the Policy Exchange that mental health issues in children are over diagnosed and are breaking the SEND system. Rounding off a triple whammy of LBC appearances, Hayley Harding from DCP member Let Us Learn Too, also appeared on Aasmah Mir’s afternoon show to discuss the same topic.