From sober to Snowdon: man climbs Welsh peak only nine days after leaving hospital
Danny Brain climbed Snowdon in a bid to turn his life around
Nine days after being discharged from hospital for pneumonia related to alcoholism, Danny Brain decided to turn his life around and summited Snowdon in Eryri National Park, North Wales.
Danny has suffered with alcoholism for decades. “I hit the drink bad. I got stabbed and got left with PTSD, that was twenty odd years ago and I drunk ever since then really,” he said.
“I went to prison for a drink driving bad incident where I had a minor in the car. There was no injuries but it was still a bad one.”
“I’ve done 18 months in prison, come out in January. There was no support when I got out, there’s Recovery Hub but they just put me on a waiting list for a detox but they said I had to get dry first, which I couldn’t.
“I was falling, hit rock bottom and realised there was a trap door basically and spent the last couple of months absolutely hammering myself,” he said.
Soon, his excessive drinking left him seriously ill.
His friend, Rob Prior, who is the founder of Sidekick Initiative that supports people affected by addiction, said: “I’ve known Danny a long time anyway, just to see him in the way he was you could see he wasn’t himself.”
“Bank Holiday weekend he was taken home a couple of times by people in an ambulance,” he said. “At one point, I thought he was going to die.”
Danny was admitted to hospital after he started having seizures and was diagnosed with pneumonia. “It was really really bad, that was the hardest thing to watch,” said Rob.
Danny was kept in hospital for three days and was put onto a detox. Rob said: “I was meant to go on the Friday with someone who was going to do the three Welsh peaks. He was in that much of a bad place that I didn’t go.”
After he was discharged from hospital, Danny decided to make a change. “I just thought ‘Do you know what? I am just going to totally change my life,” he said.
“I wasn't seeing the kids - my kids wouldn't let me see the grandkids, actually that's one of the main things I knew I had to change. It was a choice, them or drink and I had to choose them.”
The day after he got out of hospital, Danny and Rob went for a walk.” He was saying to me ‘I want to do a mountain with you’, we were walking on the Saturday and he said ‘I am going to get ready and do one of these mountains with you’,” said Rob.
Rob had already organise to go and climb Snowdon the following weekend with friend Danny Tolhurst, so Danny Brain decided to join them, only nine days after he bedbound with pneumonia.
“The climb took me ages!” he said.
“The weather was alright, it was a little bit windy but you could see everything. Probably we should've done the shorter route but we did the Watkins path because most of it is flat,” said Rob.
“It was about five up there, two hours down but it was harder to come down,” said Danny.
The climb proved to Danny that he could do anything he put his mind to. “I know I can never drink again that the choice I’ve made,” he said.
Rob said: “For his mindset you wouldn’t think its only been a month - for someone that is so mentally strong, its like someone who’s not had a drink in a year.”
“Next he reckons he’s giving up the cigarettes a month into sobriety - as someone who smoked 15 on the way up to Snowdon and 15 on the way down!”
They both will take on the mountain again in September for Suicide Awareness Month.