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Founded by Clare Hopwood

Fields of Hope

Together, we grow stronger.

Fields of Hope is an awareness platform for mental health in farming and rural communities. It exists to make the subject visible, to normalise asking for help, and to connect people with support that already exists. It is not a charity, a clinical service or a crisis line — it is a conversation, started by someone who lives this life.

Find trusted support Follow @fieldsof.h.o.p.e (opens in new tab)

Why it exists

Started from lived experience,
not a campaign plan

Clare grew up in Heyrod, on the edge of Stalybridge, in a farming family. She knows the isolation that comes with rural life — the distance between farms, the long hours, and a culture where saying you're struggling can feel like letting people down.

After winning Miss GB Manchester 2026, she went straight back to farm work — and decided to use the platform to say out loud what many in farming quietly know: mental health difficulties in agricultural families are real, underestimated and too often faced alone.

“Clare's own account of why she started Fields of Hope will sit here, in her words.” — Placeholder · from Clare's story interview

What it wants to make visible

The realities of rural life that make asking for help hard

Isolation

Farming means long days spent alone, often miles from the next person. When your work is your home and your home is your work, there is nowhere to leave the weight behind.

Stigma

A culture of resilience is a strength — until it becomes silence. In communities that pride themselves on getting on with it, admitting you're struggling can feel like weakness. It isn't.

Pressure

Weather, markets, animals and family expectation don't pause for a hard week. The pressures on farming families are relentless, and they compound quietly.

Fields of Hope will share carefully sourced statistics here as the platform grows, each linked to a current authoritative source. No figures are published until verified.

Now and next

What Fields of Hope does today

The platform is young — it launched on Instagram in summer 2026 and grows with Clare's year as Miss GB Manchester. Its activities today are deliberately simple and honest.

  • 1

    Raising awareness

    Posts, conversations and interviews that put farming mental health in front of audiences who would never otherwise think about it — including Clare's Miss GB platform.

  • 2

    Sharing real stories

    Lived experience from Clare and, with explicit consent, from others in farming — because one honest story reaches further than a hundred statistics.

  • 3

    Signposting to real support

    Pointing people to established, trusted organisations that provide actual help — listed below and checked regularly.

  • 4

    Showing up in person

    Agricultural shows, charity events and talks — including Crowns for a Cause on 26 September 2026 in aid of Manchester Mind. See events.

Coming when it's ready

Community stories

The heart of Fields of Hope will be stories from people who work the land. They will be published slowly and carefully — every story with the explicit, recorded consent of the person telling it, reviewed before publication, with a clear route to correct or withdraw it at any time. There will never be an open comments free-for-all here.

If you might want to share your story in future, start a private conversation.

Real help, from real organisations

Trusted support

Fields of Hope does not provide counselling, treatment or crisis support. These established organisations do. Links are checked regularly; the person responsible for reviewing this list is confirmed with Clare before launch.

RABI — Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution

Practical, financial and emotional support specifically for farming people in England and Wales.

Call 0800 188 4444 — free, 24/7

rabi.org.uk (opens in new tab)

The Farming Community Network

Volunteers who understand farming, supporting farming people through difficult times.

Call 03000 111 999 — 7am to 11pm, every day

fcn.org.uk (opens in new tab)

Mind

Advice and support for anyone experiencing a mental health problem, including local services across England and Wales. Clare's Crowns for a Cause event raises funds for Manchester Mind.

mind.org.uk (opens in new tab)

Take part

Ways to be part of it

Attend an event

Come to Crowns for a Cause on 26 September, or meet Clare at an agricultural show this summer.

See what's on

Collaborate

Rural businesses, agricultural organisations and community groups — if you want to help this conversation grow, get in touch.

Contact Clare

A note on what Fields of Hope is — and is not

Fields of Hope is an awareness platform founded by Clare Hopwood. It is not a registered charity, and it does not provide counselling, diagnosis, treatment, referrals or crisis response. Clare speaks as an advocate with lived experience of rural life, not as a mental health professional.

Community stories are published only with explicit consent, are reviewed before publication, and can be corrected or withdrawn at any time on request. If you need support now, please use the trusted organisations listed above — they are the experts.