Episode 01: Ben Clavel
Ben Clavel with Brendan Cullen preparing to swim the English Channel in 2023
Meet Ben Clavel a former New South Wales police officer and now English-channel swimmer living with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He is the first guest on A Home in the Outback, an independent podcast I am releasing today about people living, working and creating in the far west of New South Wales.
You can listen to the interview on YouTube, Spotify or apple podcasts.
Ben joined the police force as a young adult.
He loved working for the police and found his passion in proactive police work.
However, in 2012 while working in Tamworth, a colleague died which he says he felt partly responsible for.
The incident propelled him to work harder and faster to arrest as many crooks as he could.
However, the rush of living on constant adrenaline started to take a toll on his body.
After he moved back to Broken Hill with his family 2018, things began to unravel and he was eventually placed on restricted duties.
Ben says he felt a lot of pressure from management to return to frontline work even though he didn’t feel he was ok.
He was eventually medically discharged in 2021, and Ben reached out to local lifeline ambassador Brendan Cullen and began swimming as a way to help his mental and physical health.
In 2023, Ben swam across the English-channel in a team of 6.
You can listen to the interview on Youtube, spotify, apple podcasts or google podcasts.
The interview will also be rebroadcasted on 2DRY FM on Saturday the 17th February at 11am ACST.
If you or someone you know is a first responder and needs help please contact Fortem Australia: a non-for-profit organisation which provides specialised mental health and wellbeing support to first responders and their families. For more information head to fortemaustralia.org.au
A Home in the Outback is produced by Katherine Waite an interviewer and writer based in Broken Hill, NSW.
Thanks to Foundation Broken Hill for its support in this project.
Music by Aimee Volkofsky.
