Ex-soldier’s heartache after tragic deaths of four pals
AFORMER soldier has described the heartache of losing four of his best friends who were all servicemen to suicide and tragic accidents.
Two of the deaths happened in the space of just one month.
Sean Gregory served in the British Army between 2003 and 2013.
Over the years, he claims to have known 20 soldiers, including 19 from across Wales, who have died in tragic accidents or sadly taken their own lives.
In the cases of four of the men who have tragically died over the years, Sean describes them as “brothers”.
All of them leave behind young children.
Sean, who is from Wrexham, is speaking out about the impact working in the army had on him and why he is trying to make a difference to 10 young children who have to live the rest of their lives without their dads.
“I had to witness death and I have seen things that people wouldn’t have seen in their worst nightmares,” he said.
“It’s hard to adjust to life after the army which is why people have taken their own life because of mental health problems due to their experiences and troubles from war,” he added.
In 2012, Michael Thacker, who was from Cwmbran, was just 27 when he was fatally shot in Afghanistan.
Then, in October 2018, Richard Williams, 28, from north Wales died in a car crash.
Less than a year later, Daniel Gomez, who is from Bishopston, Swansea, was just 34 when he took his own life in August 2019.
Then, in September 2019, Richard Blain, 37, from Wrexham died in a car crash.
“After leaving the forces all I would do was think,” said Sean.
“It was constantly on my mind. I was depressed and I went through a phase where I was hardly eating or drinking water.
“I went to the doctors and I was put on anti-depressants but it didn’t seem to work. I was sad and miserable. It impacted my work, relationship and life.
“I was feeling down, all of these problems and depression mainly hit me after all of this happened, it wasn’t until around Christmas I decided to change my way of thinking.”
Sean, 34, added: “Out of the 20 soldiers, eight of them killed themselves due to mental health.”
Despite losing four close friends in such a short space of time, Sean and his friend Lyndon Barton, who is also a former serviceman, will soon be running and walking from Wrexham to Swansea in March with the hope of raising £10k.
The aim of this is to help pay for a holiday for the children or “whatever they may need to bring a smile to their faces”.
Sean added: “After leaving the forces without a lot of skill to offer for employment other than my HGV licence, I have since felt forced to stay in that line of work. There’s nothing I could do other than think, while hearing about a constant wave of negative, sad and unfortunate news.
“I wanted to change my way of thinking and try make a positive out of such negative news.
“All of the children are aged between two and 10. There’s nothing that would satisfy us more than knowing we have made a difference to the 10 children’s lives.”
A JustGiving page has been set up, you can donate at www.justgiving. com/crowdfunding/sean-gregory