Female veterans offered bushcraft skills for mental health

Female veterans have been urged by a former soldier to learn bushcraft skills to tackle mental health issues.

Michael Vaughan teaches classes in fire lighting, wood carving and foraging at a rural retreat in Mow Cop, Staffordshire.

He says the calming activities help people lose themselves in nature and gets them away from their daily lives.

Among those learning the skills have been members of a women's wellness group.

"Everyone's thinking about fuel prices, cost of living and sometimes you just need that break away," Mr Vaughan said.

"We keep going on about the stigma of men and mental health, and we forget about the women sometimes and there's women who've served on the frontline."

Mr Vaughan, who served with the Staffordshire Regiment, said learning bushcraft skills had helped him after a cancer diagnosis.

He said going on to then teach them had stopped him thinking about the disease.

"People who come up to the retreat have post-traumatic stress, have got other illnesses, but once we are up here, as a unit, those problems aren't there anymore.

"When you're away from it for a few hours... that gives you the positivity."

The project, called Operation R and R [rest and recuperation], is being run by the Tri Services and Veterans Support Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, which has raised funds for the scheme.

It is open to ex-service personnel, their families and the community.

Kerry Tillson, from Uttoxeter, set up a group called Women in Bushcraft five years ago.

She made the move when she was medically retired from the police force with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We're really keen to get more female veterans involved, not only at the retreat but within bushcraft," she said.

"I think female veterans, they're not inclined to come forward for services for help."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]