Greig Watson in Nottingham for the BBC on December 7, 2025 reported, at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn981qn7pnyo.amp :
"Submarine mental health nurse is 'Woman of Year'"
Leading naval nurse
Abigail Wright said periods of isolation presented unique mental health
challenges.
A service woman who is the sole
dedicated mental health nurse assigned to the Submarine Service has been named
"Woman of the Year".
Leading naval nurse Abigail
Wright, 33, from Nottingham, said one of her main challenges is to help crews
deal with repeated changes of location and colleagues, as well as being
isolated from friends and family for months. [SSNs may patrol for 3 months.
Then SSBNs for even longer - being out of contact for most of that time.]
She also organised the first
International Women's Day at Faslane, the Scottish submarine headquarters where
she is based.
Ms Wright has now been named
"Woman of the Year" at the 2025 Women in Defence Awards for her work.
Ms Wright, a trained mental health
nurse, joined the Navy in September 2020 where she worked at hospitals in
Portsmouth, supported Royal Marines training in Norway, and then went to
Faslane.
Working with the 5,000 members of
the Submarine Service, Ms Wright has undergone specialist training to allow her
to go on shorter trips with the vessels, to better to understand crews'
experience.
She said she helped crews deal
with "adjustment reaction" which was seen widely in the military.
"We are constantly adjusting,
whether that be changing where we work, where we live, the people around us.
"But particularly with
submarines; you are under the water, there is no daylight, your fresh food runs
out pretty quickly.
"There's little contact with
home, just one-way transmissions called familygrams which are just as long as a
tweet, for 100, maybe 200 days," Ms Wright said.
Ms Wright was - remotely -
presented with her award by Rear Admiral Jude Terry
And when boats return, Ms Wright
has ensured submariners receive the support needed to reintegrate into everyday
life.
She has also worked to make the
role of women - who make up only 10% of the Royal Navy and 6% of the Submarine
Service - as productive as possible.
"A lot of my work in Faslane,
in my spare time, was to improve the experience of women.
"It's so important as we face
challenges that perhaps men don't.
"It's important we continue
to push those policies and changes to make it as comfortable as possible for
women otherwise the recruitment and retention won't improve," she said.
Ms Wright said she was on
"cloud nine" after being told about her award - a ceremony she had to
attend remotely as she was on HMS Prince of Wales.
"One of my friends who was
with me caught my reaction on video and it is pure shock.
"Rear Admiral Jude Terry was the first [RN] woman to reach that rank, so it was extra special to get it from her," she said.
[The RN further reports https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2025/november/26/20251126-woman-of-the-year : Abigail Wright holds a degree in Psychology and Masters in Nursing. Abigail has been assigned to the medical team on HMS Prince of Wales since August 2025. In 2026 she'll be promoted to Petty Officer and will move to Plymouth to use her expertise working in the Department for Community Mental Health.]
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