Hero of 7/7 London bombings beat PTSD with help from TV’s Paul McKenna and pioneering therapy
A HERO of the 7/7 London bombings who battled crippling post traumatic stress has finally beaten it with help from telly’s Paul McKenna and a pioneering therapy.
Brave Richard Oakley was 21 and a rookie cop when jihadi suicide bombers killed 52 people in 2005’s Tube and bus blitz.
He was one of the first at Russell Square station, where he carried maimed and wounded victims from the carnage. But it took a terrible mental toll.
He told how within months of the atrocity his wife feared he would commit suicide.
But it was not until 2015, when he was officially diagnosed with PTSD, that he finally put his hell behind him.
Richard, now 33 and a dad of three, was cured by behavioural scientist and hypnotist McKenna with a relaxation technique called Havening.
Practitioners rub patients’ arms as bad memories are banished to create a state of “haven”.
The therapy has proved so effective it is now being championed by the military.
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Richard said: “The session with Paul was brilliant. It felt like my brain had been reset.
“I could suddenly balance the anger with happier feelings and I felt I could talk about things I couldn’t before.”
Speaking to mark Mental Health Week, the British Transport Police officer said of 7/7: “I can still remember screams and blood running down the platform.”
He also recalled breaking down back at his nick. Richard, of Kent, said: “I sat down in a corner and cried.
“Four months later I was sitting on my bathroom floor with the door locked and a pile of razors, thinking if I was in pain I would feel how the victims felt.
“My wife Hayley was so worried about me committing suicide that she called the police.”
His torment continued for more than a decade.
Following his therapy Richard said: “I feel I can cope. Perhaps there isn’t a miracle cure for everyone with PTSD but I know I got my life back.
“I really want every sufferer to be offered the option of this treatment.