'This is bigger than me': SAS Who Dares Wins winner's brutal row to help veterans find support
After surviving childhood trauma, injury and a failed world-record attempt, SAS Who Dares Wins series five co-winner James Priestley is taking to the rowing machine again, but this time, the challenge is about helping others find support before they reach crisis point.
Mr Priestley will attempt to break a Guinness World Record on 3 October – the longest distance rowed on an indoor rower in 12 hours – to raise money to fully fund 1,000 calls for the military community via his new mental health app VÕS HELP.
The app can connect someone to a counsellor in just a few minutes and was launched last year with the intention of helping the military community after Mr Priestley discovered how some of his veteran friends were struggling with their mental health.
It's not just for service personnel, their families and veterans but it was set up with them in mind – a detail that left Mr Priestley in tears as he spoke to BFBS Forces News, saying: "I know that [my veteran friend] has used [the app] several times and has spoken to me. I will get emotional about it. Excuse me. Sorry..."
He added: "I know that this person doesn't share as much as they should with me... and I don't want to force them to, so that is when I wrote down... on pen and paper, what can I do to help this person?"
The moment his life changed forever
Speaking to Billy Billingham and Jason "Foxy" Fox on SAS Who Dares Wins in 2020, Mr Priestley recalled how, when he was 18, his father went on the run after stealing £1 million from some "big guys".
He said: "About a month later they came and attacked us.
"Four or five men came out with balaclavas on, sprayed me in the face with some mace and hit me with a metal bar.
"I could hear my Mum screaming. They were trying to kill us."
He said growing up was " extremely tough" and that he thought staying silent was a strength whereas now he can see the value in opening up.
He said: "I used to think that to speak and cry was a weakness, whereas actually strong people share so that other people have the strength to share as well."
Why immediate access to support matters
Mr Priestley believes one of the reasons people take their own lives is because they need to speak to someone immediately, not have to wait for a doctor's referral.
He recognises the Samaritans is there for those instances but sometimes, during high call volumes, people can't get through and he hopes the app can be another source of comfort.
He said: "I'd like to interject this app so that people don't have three months inside their own minds when they need to speak to someone in three minutes and maybe end up taking their own lives or doing something else, when the real reason is, it's not that we don't have enough counsellors or therapists, it's that the bridge to connect someone to it is not quite there yet."
The SAS Who Dares Wins winner has modelled the app on Uber – if you want to speak to a therapist, you should be able to connect to one within minutes.
The app provides instant access to one of 711 counsellors and requires no details to be entered, allowing for complete anonymity.
Each call can cost either £20 or £40 depending on the level of care someone is after and Mr Priestley wants to encourage anyone in the military community to use the service using code 7FR9 that will make it free.
He said: "It's not a case of [a partner is] not as important as... an Armed Forces operative.
"Yes you are, actually. You're the reason for this person fighting... so you're just as important."
Could he break the record this time?
To raise enough money to make his dream a reality, the SAS Who Dares Wins winner will attempt to break the world record – 152 kilometres – currently held by Yevgeniy Golyatkin in Kazakhstan.
Olympic rowers have told Mr Priestley they wouldn't be able to break this record but, at 5ft 10in and 17.5 stone, he's giving it a go anyway.
He said: "If this guy who is... too old, too fat, too heavy, if he can do this, which Olympic rowers... would struggle to do and this guy has just gone and done it then maybe they can carry on in life, maybe they can integrate [on civvy street] and something which they perceive as impossible is now possible."
He attempted a 24-hour row in October 2021 which he now says was "really cocky and arrogant" as, nearly 10 hours in, he ruptured his hamstring and ended up in surgery.
Five years later he's older, wiser and determined to raise money to support the mental health of the military community.
He said: "After 10 minutes, I'm going to be in pain for the rest of the 12 hours so, I've just got to think there's people who are relying on me here, and I can't let them down.
"This is bigger than me so if I can get through this and just one person is helped by this, then it's mission accomplished."
If you want to donate, visit the VÕS HELP website here.
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