Fraserburgh man to cycle British coastline for UK's first mental health rehab centre
Danny Thain is taking on the daunting challenge sleeping rough for a month
A Fraserburgh man is taking on a 4,222 mile challenge along the coastline of the UK as he tries to open the country's first mental health rehabilitation centre.
Danny Thain, 27, is the founder of the The World Suicide Prevention Project (TWSPP).
"TWSPP means everything to me. I've lost three friends to suicide in my life and I'm only 27-years-old", he said, emotionally.
"I lost one of my best friends when I was 18-years-old. I carried his coffin out of the church.
"A year later, we lost another close friend due to suicide.
"And then just in the summer of 2022 we lost another friend. So I had the pin-drop moment to do something about this on a large scale."
Creating a brighter future
Now, Danny wants top open a TWSPP rehabilitant centre in the north east.
A deposit needs paid within six weeks, before Danny will have a few months to raise ÂŁ3 million for the building.
"From today, we've got six weeks to raise an initial ÂŁ30,000 deposit.
"Mental health, suicide especially is the silent epidemic. It's the biggest taker of lives in male and females under 50-years-old in the UK.
"Nothing is being done about it, at scale anyway.
"We want to start a place where people can come and get healing. No waiting lists, no virtual settings. Just real, human interaction, love and attention, good food and a place to put their head down."
Challenging himself in the name of mental health
Prior to Christmas Danny spent a month sleeping rough on the streets of Aberdeen.
He told Northsound News that "fun" challenges don't appeal to him.
"I was homeless for a month on the streets of Aberdeen. I didn't want to do things that seemed fun, I wanted to do challenges.
"I wanted to show people that I was sacrificing a lot for what I was doing.
"I chose the British coastline tour for the same reason, to be bold and drastic and so that people can understand that it's a real challenge.
"The worst thing for me is, I've got a one and half year old son and he just wants to be at the hip with his dad, he's constantly shouting my name.
"The thought of him knowing that I'm not going to be there for that amount of time is quite heart-breaking."
You can sponsor Danny on his GoFund me page here.