After Hours with Jimmy Thistle

Episode 80 | Scott Murdoch — Four Cans in the Fridge, the Marathon des Sables & Running to the First Minister
Scott Murdoch grew up on the schemes of Loch Lomond — grey houses, young teams, a school that got burnt down so they learned in caravans — and moved at thirteen to a nicer part of town where he suddenly realised other people's parents had Ferraris. His gran died of alcoholism at 58 looking about 80. His dad drank every day. His mum put up with it because she'd grown up in it too. As a kid, Scott knew that if his dad had four cans of beer in the fridge at home, the evening would be okay. If he went to the pub with his friends, it was best to hide under the covers and wait for it to pass.
He left school with a C in PE and a C in Music — both on performance marks alone, because he never bothered sitting the written exams. Drank in the park, caused trouble, got himself a reputation and wore it as a badge of honour. At 21, something shifted. He made two Google searches on the same day: being the child of an alcoholic, which is when NACOA appeared. And what is the toughest race on earth, which is when the Marathon des Sables appeared. Six marathons across the Sahara Desert in five days, 50 degree heat, sandstorms, a medical tent where people's feet were degloved from the sand. Scott decided he was going to do both.
It took him eight years. He went back to college, got straight A's, went to university, got straight A's again and won the court medal — the highest academic award for business at his university. Retrained, found a job he believed in, started working with NACOA, ran the Marathon des Sables in April last year for the charity, then ran 100km from Glasgow to Edinburgh through the night without sleeping to hand a letter from a grieving child to John Swinney, Scotland's First Minister.
Now 60 days out from attempting a Guinness World Record — two marathons in two time zones on the same day in Samoa — with Callum Best, Ian Stringer and Josh Connolly, all children of alcoholics, all NACOA ambassadors. The goal: to fund a national schools education programme so that children like Scott never have to count cans in silence again.

You can find Scott on Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/scott1murdoch

and you can donate to his Chasing Yesterday Marathons here:
https://www.instagram.com/scott1murdoch?igsh=MWhkMG01OTltdmo4OA==

My Instagram is:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…
https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter
https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace
https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:
https://motiv8.im/donate/
https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 79 | Paul Drayton — Ride or Die Trying: Beach Blanket Babylon, Two Brain Operations & the Love Story at the Heart of It All
Paul Drayton grew up in Sunderland — doors unlocked, family holidays, a dad who ran his own petrol station, a childhood he describes as idyllic. His first real taste of alcohol was chocolate liqueurs at his grandmother's, and he loved the feeling from the start. Not that he became a big drinker early — quite the opposite. As a teenager he was the designated driver, ferrying his friends to gay bars in his little box Astra while they drank cider and he listened to Erasure.

Then came London. Drama college. Beach Blanket Babylon, where the tips sometimes came in wraps and the shift ended at 3am and the mornings brought in with Bloody Marys to take the edge off. The trendy bars of the nineties. A life built around parties, people and performance. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, a relationship that would define the next decade of his life — with a man who became, over time, one of the most recognisable faces in Britain, while Paul quietly built everything around him and slowly stopped being Paul.

By 2015 he was at home alone with the dogs, self-medicating sciatica with alcohol, going to neighbours' houses to ask if they had any wine left. The drinking went from functioning to dependent. A drink driving incident that Paul still doesn't believe tells the full story ended up in court and in the tabloids. Two lots of brain surgery for a chronic subdural haematoma. A divorce. A month in rehab. And through all of it — all of it — he stayed sober.

The book — Ride or Die Trying — is at its heart a love story. Paul talks about the dogs who kept him honest, the 274 days that ended with champagne at a wedding, the ADHD diagnosis that finally made his whole life make sense, and what it means to finally be somebody again on your own terms.

You can find Paul on Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/pauldrayton1

His website:
https://pauldrayton.co.uk

and you can buy his book, Ride or Die Trying here:
https://amzn.to/4pguaPP

My Instagram is:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…
https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter
https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace
https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:
https://motiv8.im/donate/
https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigel Jones is the founder of the 9KM BY 9AM health and wellbeing platform, an accredited life coach, sober coach, hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner, and the author of the best selling QUIT DRINKING book Walking Back To Happiness: The Secret To Alcohol-Free Living & Well-being.
After recently reaching 2,000 alcohol-free days, Nigel has become known for his practical, no-nonsense approach to personal transformation and identity change. In this episode, he shares how stopping drinking wasn't the biggest challenge - rebuilding himself was. We explore why alcohol promises what sobriety delivers, the power of small habits, how to break free from old versions of yourself, and why lasting change happens when you stop focusing on willpower and start changing your identity.
Drawing on his own journey and his work with thousands of people looking to improve their wellbeing, Nigel explains why becoming alcohol-free is about far more than removing alcohol. It's about creating a healthier, calmer, more authentic version of yourself and building a life you no longer want to escape from.

LINKS
Website - https://www.9kmby9am.com/
My Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DLPH36R3/
Alcohol Free Coaching Programmes - https://www.9kmby9am.com/coaching/alcohol-free-coaching/
Coaching Testimonials - https://www.9kmby9am.com/coaching/coaching-testimonials/
Newsletter - https://www.9kmby9am.com/latest-news/newsletter/
Professional Bodies https://general-hypnotherapy-register.com/nigel-jones/
Professional Bodies - https://anlp.org/members/nigel-jones
Feel Good Hour - https://www.feelgoodhour.com
Podcasts - https://www.9kmby9am.com/about-nigel/podcasts/

TRY MY AI LIFE COACH
https://www.9kmby9am.com/about-nigel/ai-coach/

My Instagram is:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…
https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter
https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace
https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:
https://motiv8.im/donate/
https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 77 | Dan Sheridan — Big Dan Stella in a Straight Glass: Cirrhosis, a 20% Chance & the Liver That Changed Everything

Dan Sheridan grew up in Harwell, Oxfordshire — a village with five pubs and a club, a dad who was his hero, and a first attempt on his own life at 22 that he talked his way out of in front of a psychiatrist and never went back to. He became a dad at 19 to a woman sixteen years his senior, never found his footing, and spent the better part of two decades hiding behind a personality so large that the people who loved him genuinely couldn't believe he was suffering. Big Dan. Stella in a straight glass. Never drunk in public — just absolutely hammered at home at two in the morning, singing Adele, dancing to Happy Hardcore and hoping his eyes wouldn't open again.
When his liver finally gave out the signs were there for years — size fourteen shoes on a size twelve man, legs that were just blocks of water, blood in places blood shouldn't be. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis in 2019 and that night went on Facebook Live to announce he was going to be the first person to cure the condition. Then bought 18 tins of Stella.
In 2020, during COVID, he had a catastrophic GI bleed and decorated his house in blood. He was given a 50% chance of surviving the night. He was thinking about the lager in the fridge. The next morning a doctor told him he had a 20% chance of making it through the next hour — then the ward doors burst open and he went down fast. He woke up in ICU unable to remember his address.
What followed was three years of transplant lists, stomach drains, weekly breathalyser tests, encephalopathy so severe he rang friends to tell them he was playing Ronnie O'Sullivan at Twickenham while using a fork to call Domino's. Then a TikTok video. Then a comment. Then a message. Then a phone call. Then Claire.
On 1,111 days sober, he got a call on a Saturday — we don't normally ring patients on a Saturday, Dan, but we've got a liver for you. Three years ago on the 4th of June. He thanks that man every single day.

You can find Dan on Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/danman147

On TikTok at:
https://www.tiktok.com/@mrssheridanshusband

Mum, can you Lend me Twenty Quid - Elizabeth Burton-Phillips MBE
https://amzn.to/4vDciB7

Basketball Diaries
https://amzn.to/4wfkB63

My Instagram is:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…
https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter
https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace
https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:
https://motiv8.im/donate/
https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 76 | Brad McLeod — The Million Dollar Man: Running from everything, Drug Trafficking & the Moment Everything Shifted
Brad McLeod was born in Canada, one of twins, to a sixteen-year-old mother still living with her own parents. By the time he was six the family had relocated to Waco, Texas, and the stability he'd known at his grandparents' hands had gone. The anxiety started early. The ADHD diagnosis followed. The suspensions. The arrests. The psychiatrists, the counsellors, the pharmaceuticals — Prozac, Wellbutrin, Adderall, all of it. By sixteen he was in a lockdown treatment unit in Knoxville, Tennessee — transported there by a private security company after refusing to go voluntarily, running through a beehive and a barbed wire fence at a highway rest stop on the way.
He did a year in that program, came out the other side with a college acceptance and a car his parents had scraped together to buy him. Six months later he was sitting at a poker table when someone pulled out a pain pill and asked if he wanted to try it. He didn't know what an opiate was. He found out fast. The pills ran dry and the heroin came. He got robbed at gunpoint. He lost the apartment, the car, the college place. He got arrested again — drug trafficking charges — and when he stepped off a plane to visit his family, the police were waiting. A year in jail. Deportation. A lifetime ban from the United States.
He came back to Canada with a suitcase on his brother's floor, walking two hours each day to collect his methadone prescription, earning ten dollars an hour cash doing yard work for his parents just to cover the script. It was watching a girl's face light up to see him as he sat handcuffed in the back of a police car that finally made something shift — not the arrests, not the jail, not the deportation. Just one face in a car park.
Now sober, Brad runs the Sober Motivation Instagram, hosts his own podcast and has built one of the most active recovery communities online. His grandfather used to call him the million dollar man — for all the money spent trying to fix him. These days Brad's spending it differently.

You can find Brad on Insta at: https://www.instagram.com/sobermotivation

Brad's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Sobermotivation

The Podcast: https://shows.acast.com/sobermotivation

The Website: https://www.sobermotivation.com

and the App! https://www.sobermotivation.com/?fbclid=PAVERFWAShEIpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaeM4yWqIsLZX4WK2KIXxKLT_V16Zhy9KUX7HmMZpj2VYfL9IZKO_NUeosKkGw_aem_uLKEHdE2U-8PLJXYvYoGeQ

Dreamseller - Brandon Novak - https://amzn.to/4guPmz3

My Instagram is:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…
https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter
https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace
https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:
https://motiv8.im/donate/
https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.