Submarine mental health nurse is 'Woman of the Year'

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 was to help crews deal with repeated changes of location and colleagues, as well as being isolated from friends and family for months.

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.

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 woman to reach that rank, so it was extra special to get it from her," she said.

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