'One thing can happen in your life and it has a domino effect... I was destroyed'

Everything looked rosy in Dan Falla's life... until a tumour diagnosis sparked a shockingly swift descent into homelessness. He tells Abbie Wightwick how it happened... and how Welsh charity The Wallich helped him to rebuild his world

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ONCE a professional with a job, a home and a fiancée, Dan Falla felt he “had it all”. However, his life took a drastic turn after being diagnosed with a tumour in 2021.

By 2023, the former Rhyl Rugby Club winger found himself homeless and contemplating suicide.

It's a shockingly swift descent into homelessness, but as Dan, who was raised in Rhyl, points out, many people are only a couple of pay cheques away from a crisis. One life-altering event can quickly lead to another.

For the ex-betting company manager, that crisis was a diagnosis of a non-benign tumour in his middle ear and a relationship breakdown that led to alcohol, drugs and job loss.

Dan confesses he resorted to alcohol and drugs to manage the escalating pressure. Just before losing his home and partner, he was drinking from 7am to 2am daily, consuming 15 to 20 pints of beer and half a bottle of whisky.

He was also spending around £100 on cocaine every few days, rapidly depleting his savings.

Sleeping in railway stations and under bridges in Newcastle, where he had relocated with his partner of 11 years, Dan reached his lowest point and attempted suicide.

“I was angry I had let myself get to this point,” says the former William Hill manager. “I had the idyllic, perfect life. It was my physical and mental health that took the knock from my operation on my ear.

“In 2021 I had the surgery, in 2022 I broke up with my partner and very soon got into a cycle of drink and drugs. It was a very slippery slope. By 2023 I was sofa-surfing with 'friends' and very soon... homeless.