Bowl for Your Lives: Former cops saved by lawn bowling after PTSD battles

Two former cops say lawn bowling “saved their lives” and helped them to fight their way back from the challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Bowl for Your Lives co-founders Shane Hafner and Cameron Ryan. Picture: Mark Wilson

A pair of former cops say lawn bowling “saved their lives” and helped them to fight their way back from the challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Lara’s Shane Hafner, 48, and Sunbury’s Cameron Ryan, 52, met in the police academy in 2001 and started their careers together in Mill Park in Melbourne’s north.

After attending traumatic scenes during their time in force, both men suffered from PTSD and mental health challenges.

Mr Hafner worked in Kerang, near Swan Hill, and attended a horror collision between a loaded semi-trailer and a train at a level crossing in 2007.

The crash killed 11 people and injured 15 others.

He also attended numerous other fatalities which he “didn’t handle well”.

While working at a small country station, Mr Hafner said he worked many solo shifts and would be called to job after job, leading him to repress the trauma he experienced.

“My marriage failed through that and I became angry but I continued working,” he said.

“I use the analogy you can shake a champagne bottle but the more I suppressed, the more pressure that built up and eventually that cork has got to pop.”

Mr Hafner experienced PTSD in 2010 and 2011.

“I drank myself to sleep to avoid the nightmares,” he said.

Mr Hafner’s PTSD flared up again in 2022, which led him to him to leave the force.

“You don’t get rid of (PTSD) but you learn to manage the triggers,” he said.

Mr Ryan was a sergeant at Broadmeadows police station when a child was hit by a train while we was on duty.

“I had to go and tell his mother,” he said.

Broadmeadows was a “fast paced” station so Mr Ryan continued to work and suppressed his emotions.

“When my life slowed down, it caught up with me all of a sudden,” he said,

“I was at a train station and then suddenly everyone appeared deceased to me.

“I had to look at the ground, I couldn’t look at anyone.

“I got constant flashbacks of the child under the train.

“Dreams and flashbacks ran me into the ground and I slowly sunk into drinking to cope.”

After a suicide attempt, Mr Ryan spent 47 weeks in a psychiatric ward.

“I saw a psychiatrist, a psychologist, took medications and had therapy sessions but the beginning of me fixing myself was the day I started bowling,” he said.

“It’s the only time I had a clear mind.

“Bowling has saved my life.”

Bowl for Your Lives co-founders Cameron Ryan and Shane Hafner. Picture: Mark Wilson

In October 2022, the pair established Bowl for Your Life, a group which aims to break down the stigma of mental health and encourage people to open up about their challenges while lawn bowling.

“We’ve created an environment where people feel okay to talk about mental health,” Mr Hafner said.

“If someone does open up, that’s a start and it makes me immensely proud because for many years, I hid my emotions.

“If we can get just one person to open up, that’s a huge win.

“We can give hope that everything will be okay.”

Since the group started, it has raised for more than $38,000 for the Black Dog Institute and held lawn bowling tournaments in Lara, Ocean Grove and Anglesea.

“This is now our mission, we’re never felt more united,” Mr Hafner said.

Bowl for Your Life will hold its next tournament on March 11 at the Lara Bowling Club.

For more information, head to “Bowl For Your Lives” on Facebook.

If you need help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Originally published as Bowl for Your Lives: Former cops saved by lawn bowling after PTSD battles