Fraserburgh suicide awareness campaigner completes 4,225-mile charity cycle round Britain

Danny Thain is aiming to raise £3m to open a mental health rehabilitation centre in Aberdeenshire.

By Chris Cromar

April 22 2023, 2:11 pm

Danny Thain is the founder of charity TWSPP. Image: TWSPP.

A suicide awareness campaigner is returning to Fraserburgh today after cycling more than 4,200 miles around the coast of Britain.

Danny Thain, a life coach and founder of The World Suicide Prevention Project (TWSPP) charity has been directly affected by suicide three times.

The 27-year-old, from the Broch, started his Bike Britain Challenge to raise funds for his charity TWSPP on February 1.

Once he has completed his challenge today, he will have cycled 4,225 miles.

The route round Britain that Mr Thain has cycled. Image: TWSPP.

He aims to raise £3 million to open what he claims will be “Scotland’s first mental health rehab centre”.

So far, Mr Thain’s GoFundMe page has raised over £68,500, with the preferred property already being identified for the centre.

The 15-bedroom 18th century Straloch House Estate near Newmachar, which has 240 acres of land and was on the market for £2.7m, has been put under offer for six months to allow TWSPP to raise funds for it.

As part of the agreement, a £30,000 non-refundable deposit had to be raised within six weeks of Mr Thain leaving on February 1.

This was successful, with the remaining funds needing to be raised by the middle of June in order to purchase the property.

If successful, Straloch House would become a TWSPP rehabilitation centre dedicated to individuals battling suicidal thoughts or anything related to suicide.

The centre would also employ a group of professionals to “handle each aspect of the healing process”, which would be unique to the individual.

Straloch House Estate is under offer and will be TWSPP’s if they can raise the money for it. Image: Media House International.

Mr Thain outlined that the programme would include:

Counselling
Spa and wellness
Exhilarating activities
Outdoor and nature time
Work within the estate
Nutrition

Mr Thain said: “This will significantly impact the mental health community positively and provide a service that will contribute towards ending suicide.

“This requires money and this is where I ask people to see through the eyes of their hearts.

“This is the start of something big, and we don’t just see this in Scotland, we see this service worldwide.”

Last year, he slept rough on the streets of Aberdeen for 30 nights to raise awareness of homelessness.

Mr Thain’s partner Jay Milne said she was “really excited” for his return home, saying “it will be good to see him”.

Discussing his journey, she said: “It’s been really good. He’s obviously had his struggles, but folk have been really nice and helped him out along the way. He’s been getting on really good.”