‘Alcohol almost killed me – now I celebrate sobriety in the most unlikely of places’

Twenty years ago, just before Christmas, Dave Crawley lay in his hospital bed thinking his life was about to end.

Suffering serious liver damage after years of alcohol abuse, his parents gave him some rosaries and a chaplain at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford read him the last rites.

“I thought this was the end,” the now 62-year-old said. “I remember lying in bed and my mom asking me if I was coming home for Christmas, and I told her I wasn’t coming home at all.”

But despite the doctors’ fears, Dave made a remarkable recovery; A return to which he clung to the Catholic faith and later the support of his brother Stephen.

“They thought I was going to die that night, my body was clinically dead, I had to be resuscitated and I felt an out-of-body experience,” he said. “I was given a blood transfusion and that got me through the hospital part, then I went into rehab – and that’s really where my life was saved,” he said.

With the help of his brother, Dave was finally able to quit drinking and get his life back together and now works as a mentor helping others.

The brothers celebrate his recovery every year, perhaps in the astounding setting of the Cheltenham Festival, where almost 400,000 pints of Guinness were drunk this year; most of them are in Best Mate Enclosed, where the couple got tickets for Gold Cup Day.

“I was a chronic alcoholic and thankfully I stayed sober,” Dave said. “Then a rekindled relationship with my brother saved my life; now we come here every year to celebrate what we have achieved.

“Drink [at Cheltenham] It doesn’t bother us at all, not in the slightest. It’s funny to see them all get so carried away. At the beginning of the day, people seem very smart, but at the end they are a complete mess.

“You can smile at each other.”

The brothers bonded while Dave was in rehab in Weston-super-Mare after being discharged from hospital.

Stephen said: “I went there to meet some of the people who were looking after David. We had a badminton match and he was recovering enough to beat me, but I insisted he stay there to continue getting help, even when he wanted to leave.”

“It took endurance and belief, and it finally came through when he started supporting my business. [called Telad] mentoring other men.”

When Stephen, who has his own problems with drinking, threw a Christmas party in 2006 the pair vowed never to drink again and went to Cheltenham for the first time the following year.

“We ate lots of chocolate and donuts the whole time we were here, but we didn’t drink any alcohol.” said Stephen. “Some people might think this is crazy, but it’s really funny.”

The pair, who are both from the West Midlands and now run consultancies, ended the festival with a winning bet on the horse (Johnny’s Jury) in memory of their father, who Dave says instigated his baptism.

“The horse won,” Dave said. “This was such a special moment and brought us back to why we are here.”