Prince William gets stuck in as he tackles stigma around mental health

Prince William got stuck in today as he focused on a cause which is very dear to his heart. In his role as Patron of We Are Farming Minds, the Prince of Wales visited a 190-acre family-owned farm in Herefordshire to learn about the importance of mental health support within the farming community.

While he was there, William spoke about how farmers are often faced with numerous external pressures and considerable uncertainty, which can have a profound impact on their mental health.

After an in-depth talk with John Bowler, who runs the farm, his wife, Laura, and Sam Stables, founder of We Are Farming Minds, the Prince got involved as he helped out with various jobs, such as pruning apple trees, building new fencing and feeding sheep.

Mr Bowler became linked to We Are Farming Minds after he unexpectedly had to take over his family farm in 2012, at the age of 19. He reached out to the charity for support as he faced a huge number of challenges while adapting to the changes in his life.

We Are Farming Minds is a charity which works to support the mental health of farmers in rural communities throughout the country. It was founded by Sam and Emily Stables after they observed the stigma surrounding mental health in the farming industry.

The charity offers Herefordshire farmers fully funded access to a range of services, including counselling, a 24-hour phone and text support line, free mental health awareness workshops and social events throughout the year to break feelings of isolation.

The Prince became the Patron of We Are Farming Minds back in March 2025. He has long focused much of his work on breaking down the stigma around mental health and takes a keen interest in promoting good mental health among farmers in the UK.

William’s outing in Herefordshire today comes after farmers in the UK have been told there will be no further changes to the already watered-down plans to raise farm inheritance tax.

Last month, the Government said its planned threshold for a 20% tax on inherited agricultural assets would be raised from £1m to £2.5m.

Speaking at a conference in Oxford on Thursday, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds ruled out further changes to the introduction of inheritance tax for farming businesses. She said the Government had listened to the concerns of farmers over the controversial plans to levy inheritance tax and had “significantly increased” the threshold at which they would have to pay the tax.

As farmers protested outside the conference centre and sounded their tractor horns, she said: “May I also say, with the greatest respect to those outside, it’s the people in this room who have engaged with us constructively, and relatively quietly, that have had an influence on this process, and not the people sounding their horns.”