A headteacher and an ambulance driver have given up the rat race in Kent for a simpler life – selling rugs on a tiny island off Shetland.

Helen Hart and partner Jason Tilbury featured on this week's episode of Channel 5's Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.

They are the owners of a croft on Yell, one of Shetland’s North Isles, where they tend to nearly 30 acres of land and look after 40 sheep and 15 chickens.

It marks a huge change from their life in Maidstone, where Helen, 55, ran an independent school and Jason, 57, was an ambulance driver.

On the brink of burnout and with a stressful near two-hour commute, Helen decided to quit her job, sell her four-bed semi-detached house and pack all her belongings into a car.

Helen had amassed £125,000 to start over and set her sights on the furthest point in the UK away from Kent.

In 2018 she found a run-down cottage with nearly 30 acres of croft land on Yell for £85,000 and inspired her partner to buy into the dream.

It's taken three years of tireless work but the couple, who had to take on paid jobs, have managed to forge a new life in one of the most remote parts of the country – closer to Bergen in Norway, than Edinburgh, Scotland.

"We just wanted to stop and breathe and live," Helen told presenter Ben Fogle who was featuring their journey as part of his New Lives In The Wild show on Channel 5 which aired Tuesday.

Alongside their duties on the croft, Helen works as an English teacher on both Yell and Unst, while Jason is a coastguard.

Although remote, the cottage is connected to the grid and water is pumped from a local reservoir.

But the couple admitted their new rural life has not been without its challenges.

At the time of the show, which was filmed in 2021, they were still struggling to finish the renovations of the cottage, whose floors needed stripping due to flooding.

They also told Ben they had managed three years without a kitchen or sink, which had only just been installed shortly before the presenter's visit.

"We've been here for two and a half years without a kitchen so it's a step up," said Helen.

"We were washing up in the basin of the bathroom and then when Jason eventually put the shower in it was like great, we've got more space to wash up. Pasta around your toes!"

Jason, who had no building experience when the couple first moved in, admitted they both had no idea so much graft was needed.

"We knew it needed work," he said, "but we thought we'd just have to paint it."

And Helen had to admit that the weather had taken its toll on the house on more than one occasion.

"The weather tries to kill you," she said. "One night we didn't have anything to stop the rain flooding in. It was torrential inside."

But despite the challenges Helen said moving to Yell had been like "an injection of life".

"The minute I stood on the land, I suddenly had this really overpowering feeling like 'Here, nature is all around you'. The air was fresh and suddenly I could breath," she said.

Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild show is available to stream on Channel 5 now.