'When I woke up, I was just happy I didn't die'

A man who lost both his legs and an arm when he tried to take his own life says his life is much better now.

Craig Bowler, from Olney, Buckinghamshire, said he did not talk about his feelings, he had no control over them and they eventually "exploded".

His message to anyone going through issues was to talk about them, he said.

He is now preparing to represent England in para bowling at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, in Birmingham.

Fifteen years ago, Mr Bowler said he was in a very different state.

"My brain just exploded.

"There wasn't any build-up, people didn't notice a difference in me. I had a good job, good career, lots of friends, I was quite a popular person.

"Something must have triggered it, I had no control over it" he said.

He said despite losing three limbs, and being in a coma for a month and a half, "when I woke up, from that day, I was just happy I didn't die".

Things started to change and he married his physiotherapist's assistant, Abby Bowler, from Newport Pagnell, who "nursed him back to life", he said.

"We came friends first, fell in love, we married and we have two beautiful children now."

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He said young men did not talk about their problems as there was still "the stigma that you're weak".

"It takes a real man to cry in front of someone and to be open.

"If you don't talk about it, and even if you talk about things and you don't think it's helping, it really is, it makes you feel different about yourself."

He said he was now "hooked" on bowls, which he took up after his amputations, despite him thinking it was an "old man's game".

"If someone offered me my old life, with legs and arms, or this life, I'd choose this life any day of the week. I've got a better life now."

He shared his views on opening up at the BBC Radio Northampton Headfest '22 at the Royal and Derngate theatre in Northampton.

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