When Sally Orange’s 22-year career in the British Army ended because of her depression, few could have known that it would mark the start of something else – a new career inspiring others.

But she was determined to show the world that there should be no stigma to openly discussing mental health issues.

Since 2019 the 49-year-old has run more than 82 marathons around the world and raised more than £500,000 for charitable causes.

Most notable is her record-breaking 25,000-mile tour, running seven marathons in seven continents in just seven consecutive days.

In November she will be awarded an MBE by King Charles, and it is no surprise that she has been placed as finalist for Thursday’s English Veterans Awards, a showcase of the great things former member service personnel achieve when they leave the forces.

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Although Sally’s experiences in the Royal Army Medical Corps included a harrowing tour of Afghanistan, she did not suffer PTSD.

“People assume veterans with mental health issues have PTSD but it is not always the case,” she said from her home in Salisbury.

“I had depression, but it wasn’t even about my tour in Afghanistan in 2011, where I served in a field hospital in Camp Bastion dealing with soldiers who were very seriously injured and had lost limbs.

“In my case, there wasn’t a single trigger, but I reached the point where I wanted to take my own life. I was not in a very good way. The fact is depression and anxiety don’t discriminate. Whatever your background, whatever your makeup, you can be affected.”

She decided to make a difference in another way, and began to raise funds for charities by running marathons and swimming, the latter has ranged from swimming the English Channel to the turbulent waters around Alcatraz prison in San Francisco – a metaphor for how “mental illness makes you feel like a prisoner – unless you acknowledge it and tackle it.”

But her pièce de résistance was arguably her Continental odyssey, which took her from Antarctica to South Africa, Australia, Dubai, Spain, Brazil and Miami.

“I wanted to take a mental health message around the world, so I hit upon the idea of running seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days,” she said.

“I slept on the plane and would run as soon as I landed, even if it was 4am. I had no idea what day of the week it was and the contrast between -40 C in Antarctica to the heat in South Africa and extreme humidity in Brazil was immense.”

And all to get a simple message across.

“Although things are improving slowly, I believe and have experience of the fact that people are still ashamed to admit that they have been diagnosed with a mental illness as they see it as a weakness due to the stigma associated with it, ” she said.

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“But it is anything but a weakness – it is an illness, it affects one in four people and is still the cause of many suicides because people are not discussing it. It should be as easy to discuss mental health as the common cold.”

Other finalists for Thursday’s awards include Paul Jacobs, the first combat blind man to climb Everest, and Patrick Lister Odd, a finalist for Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in campaigning agent now defunct discriminatory LGBT policies in the military.

Speaking last night former Welsh Guard Sean Molino, who founded the awards ceremony in 2019, said: “We wanted to celebrate those veterans who did well in business, and those who volunteered their time for good causes – those who chose to give back to their communities.

“The key thing, we feel, is that these awards are run by veterans for veterans. I think it means a lot to them.”

https://veteransawards.co.uk/english-veterans-awards/

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