Speakers

Jason is a Director at Cheesmur Building Contractors who are celebrating offering 90 years of construction expertise in 2026, from 12th Century Historic Castle Walls to modern environmentally friendly family homes. Founded in 1936 and based in Lewes, Cheesmur specialises in new build construction, refurbishment, building maintenance and facilities management. These services are delivered within housing, commercial, health & care, education, facilities management and heritage sectors.

Before joining Cheesmur in 2008, Jason gained valuable experience as a Structural Draughtsman for an engineering practice, before heading to site as a Site Engineer and later a Site Manager, prior to taking up a position of Contracts Manager with Integra.

The stigma around mental health within the industry and high suicide rate amongst those employed in the sector led Jason to become a Mental Health 1st Aider in 2018. During welfare checks in the early stages of the Pandemic it became clear that mental heath was worsening within the industry and Jason contacted IDP Safety Services and local contractors to consider if they would set aside their competitive business practices and pool their resources for the benefit of the regional industry and offer a consistent approach to mental health support across the sites. In doing SWAG has been able to support many individuals from trades, management and consultants who were in need of help. Fundraising has enabled counselling to be offered in early course, whilst the NHS services are being sought.

SWAG has given to support to a significant number of persons and positive feedback identified, that a number of potential suicides have been prevented. Much work still needs to be actioned in the industry, but SWAG has the regional industry talking about Mental Health and Jason has been able to deliver talks at the University of Brighton to the Built Environment Students and Academic Staff to raise awareness to the next generation of the industry.