A man who was seconds away from jumping off the Sydney Harbour Bridge has shared the secrets of how he overcame his despair to become a father, ultra-marathon runner and mental health champion.
Early in the morning on December 4, 2014, a heavily intoxicated Dan Price, 29 – shattered after a divorce and heavily depressed – climbed outside the safety fence of the bridge.
Exhausted and desperate, Mr Price planned to take his own life.
An initial stand-off with police and the rescue effort that followed threw the city into a panic as the bridge closed and morning traffic started to bank up.
So ashamed was Mr Price, who admitted he was sleeping in his car that week, that he tried to convince his rescuers he was only watching the sunrise.
Dan Price, who was seconds away from jumping off the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2014, has transformed his life and become a father, ultra-marathon runner and mental health champion (Pictured, Mr Price with wife Sarah)
Early in the morning on December 4, 2014, a heavily intoxicated Dan Price, 29, shattered after a divorce and heavily depressed, climbed outside the safety fence of the bridge
To this day, he says he ‘always’ gets chills whenever he passes the fateful spot on the Bridge where he had to be saved from himself.
Fast forward eight years and Mr Price is a father to two children, Talulah, 4, and Sunny, 2, and is married to Sarah.
He’s also just completed his second 100km ultra-marathon in late October, overcoming agonising cramps to cross the line in just over 11 hours.
In a recent social media post marking his 37th birthday, Mr Price said his ‘life is fuller than I could have ever imagined’.
He credits his remarkable transformation to a decision to open up and tell his story after people presumed he was just ‘burned out’ before almost ending his life.
Back on December 4, 2014, Mr Price, then 30, was spotted by a security guard walking ‘heel-to-toe’ along a thin piece of railing 60 metres above Sydney Harbour.
Fast forward eight years and Mr Price is a father to two children, Talulah, 4, and Sunny, 2, and is married to Sarah
Constable Arun Trevitt, who later became good friends with Mr Price, convinced him that whatever had put him in that spot, he could overcome it (Pictured, Mr Trevitt with Mr Price)
A study of casualties between 1930 and 1982 showed falling from the Bridge has an 85 per cent fatality rate.
Mr Price remembers scrambling over the fence and ‘tight-rope’ walking along the rail.
‘I can pretty clearly remember climbing over the fence just after 5am,’ Mr Price told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I was exhausted, I’d felt suicidal for so long and didn’t have strength to continue and keep pretending I was ok every day.
‘I wasn’t sleeping, I was drinking too much. I was working up to 14 hours a day.’
By the time he was spotted by Bridge security, he was extremely lucky he hadn’t fallen over already.
‘Fear and shock’ washed over Mr Price when he realised the danger he was in after he snapped out of a blackout state.
The security guard noticed him, then soon a police officer, Constable Arun Trevitt, moved to the fence to try and calm him down.
Mr Trevitt, who later became good friends with Mr Price, convinced him that whatever had put him in that spot, he could overcome it.
The emergency workers on the scene cut a hole in the fence to pull him through and once on the other side, he was read his mental health rights and taken away in an ambulance.
He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, taken to the Psychiatric Emergency Care Centre (PECC) in Sydney and placed under observation.
‘It was all for my own safety, that probably saved my life.
‘You can imagine how rattled I was. I would have run away if that hadn’t occurred.’
He remembers the PECC as a scary place.
Dan Price just completed his second 100km ultra-marathon in late October, overcoming agonising cramps to cross the line in just over 11 hours
Getting honest with friends and loved ones is the number one thing Mr Price recommends for anyone struggling with mental health issues (Pictured Mr Price with wife Sarah)
‘It was an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone – they lock the doors on you and take away your belt and even your shoelaces.’
When he was released four days later, a daunting recovery journey had just begun.
He needed a month in-patient stay at another mental health facility, then saw a psychiatrist and psychologist every week for 12 months.
Mr Price needed several types of medication, which he took for three years.
He also embarked on a fitness journey that has since seen him tackle several ultramarathons.
While the relationship he was in at the time came to an end, Mr Price leaned into the help available.
Friends and family knew he’d been saved on the Bridge, but few knew how or why he ended up there.
‘They just thought I was burned out.’
He opened up to loved ones then decided to tell his story more widely. By 2017 he had become a mental health ambassador.
He met his wife, Sarah, in 2017 – who had also had major mental health challenges – and the couple have two children together.
Mr Price stopped working extreme hours and started putting more time into other interests, where he has found the sense of community he craved
Mr Price has used physical challenges to help maintain good mental health
In his birthday post Mr Price reflected on ‘eight birthdays that very nearly never were’.
‘[Being] 29 was almost the end. I saw it. I felt it. But little did I know that 29 marked a second chance. A re-birth. Never again would a day be taken for granted.
‘I welcome 37, feeling more alive than ever before. My life fuller than I could have ever imagined. Cherish every moment, every breath.
‘Stay present, keep your eyes and heart open, because this miracle could be gone in an instant.’
Mr Price is raising money for Move for Movember, a challenge to run or walk 60km this month. Every hour worldwide, 60 men lose their lives to suicide.
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