Jason Fox, the former Royal Marine Commando turned Special Forces sergeant, brings raw authenticity to Channel 4’s hit series SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Fox enlisted at 16 and built a career in hostage rescue, surveillance, and counter-terrorism before stepping away two decades later, battle-scarred by PTSD.
In his book, Life Under Fire, Fox trades sandbags for self-discovery, offering a hard-earned roadmap to inner strength and resilience.
Addicted to challenge, not chaos
Many wonder if elite soldiers crave danger. Fox sets the record straight:
“I enjoy challenging myself, and did from an early age. It gives me a sense of achievement, so I like being in uncomfortable situations.
But I don’t go out of my way to find new and wonderful ways to kill myself; if something looked like it was going to be certain death, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t deliberately push my luck.”
Wrestling the demons
Behind the tough exterior lies a man who once faced his darkest thoughts:
“Demons are like your emotions. Human beings are driven by emotions, and we can sometimes allow them to control us, or be embarrassed by them.
That makes us not talk about them, and when I went through my sticky patch and was contemplating suicide, I wasn’t being honest with myself about what my emotions were.
I was trying to ignore them, which was just compounding the issue. They’re my emotions, and it’s up to me what I do with them.”
From veteran to optimist
Transformation isn’t just physical—it’s mental:
“My description might be different to what others might say, but I’d say I’m a very positive person who enjoys life. I’m glad I went through what I did because it’s made me much more rounded in my approach to myself.
I like to think I’m a reasonably aware person—not just of my own feelings but hopefully other people’s too.”
Missing the brotherhood
Combat bonds run deep—and remain unforgettable:
“It’s difficult to understand why soldiers miss it. It’s not that I miss the violence; I think what comes with the chaos is a very strong bond between you and the people you experience it with.
That feeling of brotherhood with people you can trust with your life. It’s unfortunate you have to experience it in such dark places, but it is an addiction. It’s the sense of belonging that people miss.”
Finding purpose beyond the uniform
Fox co-founded Rock2Recovery to support veterans and families facing stress, turning his mission inward and outward:
“Yeah, I think so. My purpose now is to enjoy life, but also to help people in whatever capacity I can. Whether that’s through talking about mental health or through my organisation (Fox co-founded Rock2Recovery, which supports people in the forces, veterans and their families dealing with stress).
Pushing limits on TV
SAS: Who Dares Wins isn’t just shouting and mud—it’s a wake-up call:
“We all put in an awful lot of effort to give people a life-changing experience. It looks like we’re just screaming and shouting, but there’s a lot more than is shown.
It’s an opportunity for people to really push themselves – to see what they’re actually capable of. I love the way all the people who come on are so surprised by what they can achieve.
The road out of darkness
A final tour in Afghanistan set the stage for a hidden battle:
“It wasn’t sudden. On my final tour of Afghanistan, there are moments I can pinpoint when I felt strange things. Like lying in a ditch and suddenly thinking about being at home as a 10-year-old boy when I’m supposed to be a seasoned combat veteran.
“When I came back from that tour, I was so unmotivated. I wasn’t having flashbacks or anything, but I was supposed to be a leader, and it just wasn’t right. I tried to explore that, to restore my military mojo, and it turned out I’d contracted PTSD and was in a fit of depression.”
Losing—and finding—purpose
Leaving the service felt like a sentence to aimlessness:
“Yeah. I was told the thing that would fix me was leaving the military. I wasn’t totally happy with it, but I had to listen. Then I woke up expecting to feel better, and I didn’t; I felt worse.
I’d lost my sense of belonging and no longer felt part of something that had been a massive part of my life since I was 16. There’s an identity there, so you’re left thinking, ‘Who am I? What’s my purpose?”
Do you look back on your army days and think about the lives you cut short or those you couldn’t save?
“Not any more, because it is what it is. The by-product of that job is extreme violence, but I enjoyed soldiering. I enjoyed the sense of purpose, the camaraderie, and the different skills.
I didn’t enjoy being extremely violent, and I genuinely believe most of the blokes I worked with didn’t enjoy it either.
“When you’re in a gunfight, no one’s angry, no one’s happy – it’s just what you do. And the people I couldn’t save – I can’t change it. I did revisit it for a period, and it wasn’t helpful for my mental health, so I learnt from that and moved forward.”
Breaking the ‘man up’ myth
Old tropes hurt more than help:
“It’s a by-product of old attitudes. Different things work for different people, but to blanket men with this idea that you just need to shut up and ‘man up’ is not helpful. It obviously doesn’t work for a lot of people, because men are killing themselves at an astonishing rate.
“We need men to know that if they don’t feel good, that’s all right, and it’s a natural reaction to something. It’s called being human.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want it to be an excuse – ‘I can’t do this and I can’t do that’ – you’ve got to find a little bit of grit and determination to help you through tough times. But please, please find the right people you feel comfortable talking to, because that 100% saved me.”
The power of confession
Revealing his PTSD on national TV was a turning point:
“Yeah. One of the most pivotal moments was on the first series of Who Dares Wins, as one of the main reasons I went on the show was to use it as a platform to talk about mental health.
I knew when episode two came out at nine o’clock on a Monday, it was going to be] me on national TV saying, ‘I’ve been medically discharged for PTSD and I suffer from depression’. I was so scared, so anxious, and not a nice person to be around that day.
“I had no idea how it was going to be received, but when it went out, the feedback was awesome. I felt such a sense of empowerment, like the biggest weight had been lifted, because I’d admitted something real and said, ‘That’s who I am’. I didn’t need to keep up this façade of being this super tough bloke. I’m so pleased I did it.”
A message to younger self
The advice is simple, yet profound:
“If you start to feel a certain way and it doesn’t sit right, address it. Talk with someone you trust. That’s probably the only thing, really – you’re going to go through some things, but it’s OK. Don’t be ashamed of it. Talk to someone.”
Life Under Fire: How To Build Inner Strength And Thrive Under Pressure by Jason Fox is published by Penguin Random House, priced £20. Available now.
