Written 1 month ago by Angel Croitor

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Paul McVeigh decided he needed to go a year without the beer as a challenge and will fundraise, along with a couple of friends, for Good2Talk Westmeath. Midlands 103’s Brian Moss spoke to Paul to see what inspired the challenge.

Paul began to realise his relationship was with booze was becoming unhealthy and decided he had to do something about it.

“You don’t have to be drinking every day – when I was out I was out for a session and when you wake up the next morning and you’re like do I let the hangover kick in or do I go on the beer for the day – you’re only really prolonging the agony.”

Paul tells us that it started to have a negative effect on every aspect of his life – especially when half way during every week he wasn’t feeling himself. He is usually a positive and out going character.

He says he’s been very lucky to find Wolfhound Fitness in Mullingar and that without their support and the communal spirit he wouldn’t be able to do this. This is the group that will help him stay on track for the next 12 months. The gym is the brain child of two young Mullingar minds Joe Nangle and Katie Murphy.

“You can’t deny fitness is growing in Ireland – strong is the new skinny” – Joe Nangle

Paul is raising money for Good2Talk Westmeath which is a local mental health service that deal with counselling, addiction, mental health issues, etc. and don’t receive any government funding whatsoever.

The drinking started to get Paul down and give him anxiety so when he saw that Wolfhound Fitness did a charity event for Good2Talk last December he felt it hit home as the drinking started to have it’s negative effects on him outside of the hangovers.

He feels that he is lucky to have found Wolfhound fitness and to start a journey with such a communal and supportive team. He wants to give people encouragement to reach out, get help, and that there are services out there on a local level. He says that after simply talking to his friends about the challenge and recommending the gym they’ve started up their own gym membership in the last week.

Paul hopes that the long-term plan with the challenge is that he can hopefully curtail his drinking habits and learn to enjoy a few responsibly.

His training instructor, Joe Nangle, saw the effects that the drink was having on his life and his training and together they come up with a plan to set challenges for themselves and other people that seem impossible and overcoming them. The plan started off as a drive up to Westport, cycle from the greenway in Westport to Achill and climb Croagh Patrick with a weight vest on.

You can follow their journey here at ActionPackedYearWithoutTheBeer

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