A former British soldier who said he went from “war hero to drug addict” and thought he had “ruined” his future when he almost lost his life by overdosing on cocaine has now launched a successful global fitness business and wants to inspire others.
Sean Willers, a health and fitness coach who currently splits his time between Southampton, Hampshire and Ibiza, Spain, said his addiction to alcohol and drugs developed while growing up.
He moved into a hostel when he was 15, was homeless for a while and then moved to Wolverhampton, West Midlands, where he found his “real passion for fitness”.
Sean later joined the British Army and served four years in the RAF, doing a tour of Afghanistan, which he said “opened his eyes”, before entering the world of DJing with his brother Liam, 33.
The now 34-year-old said his addiction to drugs and alcohol intensified during his time as a DJ, but he didn’t turn around when he accidentally overdosed in July 2021 and spent all his money on booze and drugs in one night of life around.
“Supposedly the police picked me up,” explained Sean.
“I have this scar here on my head. I have no idea what happened, but I was clearly abusive.
“I checked my card at the end and I basically spent all the money I made on drinks at some random place, I ended up doing a load of coke and it was just an accident.
“And I was sitting in the hospital, I was crying in front of my dad and I said, ‘this is it.’
“The funny thing is, looking back, if it had never happened, I would have continued to DJ, and inevitably the drinking and drug use would always come back anyway. It’s lucky that it happened.”
Before joining the army, Sean was employed as a personal trainer at Fitness First in Wolverhampton.
Given his father’s military experience in the Parachute Regiment, Sean said “the military was always something (he) wanted to do”.
He joined the British Army aged 22 and, after training at RAF Honington, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, served a six-month tour in Afghanistan on Operation Herrick as a regimental gunner in 2 Squadron RAF Regiment.
During his time in the army, his addiction to alcohol began to creep in, and he said it was a foreshadowing of “things to come”.
“I always knew I wanted to tour Afghanistan, because Afghanistan was operational at the time, and I wanted to serve the country … and then I wanted to get back into the fitness industry with that military experience,” he said.
“Back then I was really into fitness, but despite that I still suffered from an alcohol problem. I’ve always been a bad drinker.”
After four years of service to his country, Sean began DJing with his brother Liam in 2013, and the pair soon began attracting the interest of record labels and influencers within the house music industry.
The Willers Brothers, as they were called, were signed up for a weekly residency at London’s Egg club, where they played for four years.
Sean said they were the other DJs on the list who played at Egg and were quickly signed by the Watergate agency in Berlin, Germany.
After moving to live in Berlin, DJ gigs at prominent nightspots such as Tresor followed, and the brothers threw themselves into the party lifestyle.
Sean described his DJing experiences as “incredible”, but with all the partying and drug and alcohol use, things went sour very quickly – and by March 2020, Sean was using cocaine up to five times a week.
“While I was using drugs, I ended up getting kicked out of almost every agency we worked at; everything was really only related to drugs,” he said.
“I was having nightmares, me and Liam were fighting, I couldn’t make music.
“My drug use got so bad that I would just go to the studio as an excuse to do drugs; all my money went to drugs.
“I was overweight, I wasn’t sleeping well, I had anxiety, mental health issues, bad acid reflux issues, and I just became the fittest I’ve ever been, (in) the military, (a) war hero, to name a few drug addict.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sean said he and his brother later “lost all (their) jobs,” which, in retrospect, was “the best thing that happened.”
Sean worked night shifts at Amazon, packing boxes in a warehouse in Berlin, because it was the only English-language job he could find at the time.
Sean and Liam then decided to return to England, but his life was turned upside down the night he was rushed to hospital for a cocaine overdose in July 2021.
He said it was “very scary”, especially since he doesn’t remember what happened and thought he had “messed everything up”.
Back in England, the brothers were signed to Constellate Talent, a DJ talent agency, but Sean’s heart wasn’t in it.
He then found work working as a PE teacher at a local school in Southampton, which he “absolutely loved”, but soon realized his true passion was helping others with their fitness and health.
He said: “What I really wanted to do (was) help people in fitness because it saved me… so I ended up quitting school.”
Sean has since changed his lifestyle – getting sober, doing intermittent fasting, exercising, eating well, repairing relationships with his family and teaching others.
He said he now has a good relationship with his mother Debbie and his brother Liam has also changed his life and plans to run the London Marathon in April.
Sean set up a website for his business, Willers Fitness, and, as a qualified personal trainer, began offering online fitness training to clients, including those he met in the music industry.
He said there is “no helpline” for people in the industry, and many fall into alcohol and drug abuse because they are “booked for gigs and (expected) to have fun”.
But Sean wants to help people commit to making fitness and wellness a dedicated part of their lifestyle, regardless of outside pressures or their careers.
“When I was in Berlin, I was penniless, I had no money, I was addicted to drugs, and that was, let’s talk, two years ago,” he said.
“Fitness saved me… but (I want people to understand) you don’t have to make these big changes in your lifestyle; it is not as scary as you believe.
“I want to help as many people in the music industry get back to health and look and feel as good as possible, but at the same time, I want (to) help other people who may not be in a financial situation (to pay for training).”
Willers Fitness has now gone global and has online clients in 14 different countries including the USA, Malta, Uganda, the Netherlands and as of June 2022 Sean has gone full time to focus on growing his business.
Sean is now in talks to provide fitness coaching for wellness resorts in Ibiza, working with travel agent The Tribe, taking part in retreats from May onwards.
After establishing a reputation as a respected fitness trainer, Sean was offered the role of health advisor to volunteers taking part in charity trips to Uganda, as part of The Tribe Uganda.
During his volunteering in Uganda, he decided to found the Willers Foundation, a charity that will provide fitness and sports training to disadvantaged orphans, many of whom are disabled.
Sean said he doesn’t think he’d be where he is today if he hadn’t overdosed that night, and seeing the impact he made on other people’s lives encouraged him to keep going.
Reflecting on his darker times to where he is now, he said: “Just by improving your health, the number of other people around the world you can inspire is just amazing.”
To find out more about Sean’s work visit: www.willersfitness.co.uk or you can follow him on Instagram at @willersfitness.