Phil Briggs

I am an outdoor professional with over 30 years’ experience working in expedition leadership and guiding, personal development, and nature-based therapeutic programmes. My background also includes service as a Royal Marines Commando and work as a Wildlife and Environmental Crime Officer, alongside many years of leading individuals, organisations and groups in challenging and remote environments around the world. I am the founder of Wild Roots Renewal CIC, which delivers nature-based programmes designed to support recovery, resilience, and wellbeing, primarily for people going through cancer, those in post-cancer recovery, and their carers. My work focuses on creating practical, grounded experiences in nature that help people reconnect with themselves, others, and the world around them. I also help run Snowland Journeys CIC, supporting young people in Nepal to undertake life-changing journeys across the Himalayas to reconnect with their families after many years apart. Having come through my own cancer diagnosis and treatment, I now bring together lived experience with professional practice. I work particularly with people affected by cancer, using simple outdoor approaches such as walking, time in nature, exercise outdoors and shared experience to support both physical and emotional recovery.

My cancer experience changed how I see health, recovery, and what people truly need to heal. While medical treatment is essential, I became aware of the gaps beyond it -particularly in long-term wellbeing, identity, and connection. Through my own recovery, I experienced first-hand the benefits of movement, nature, and community. These were not complex interventions, but simple, consistent practices that helped me rebuild strength, perspective, and resilience. I have also seen, through my work with people in nature and through initiatives such as Snowland Journeys, how powerful reconnection, challenge, and shared experience can be in shaping people’s lives. I joined Inspire2Live because I believe patients should play an active role in shaping their own health journeys and in influencing wider systems of care. I am particularly committed to raising awareness of HPV-related cancers and the importance of prevention, including increasing uptake of the HPV vaccination among young people. I believe that better awareness, early education, and accessible information can play a vital role in reducing future cancer cases. More broadly, I want to help ensure that approaches which sit alongside medicine - practical, human, and rooted in everyday life - are recognised and made more widely available.

Cancer recovery and survivorship | Nature-based health and wellbeing | Outdoor-based interventions and exercise | Men’s health and engagement | HPV awareness and cancer prevention | Community-based support programmes | Resilience and behaviour change through nature