Ren and Breathe: When the Body Becomes the Battlefield

There’s a moment in a recent Instagram video where Ren admits something most people wouldn’t say out loud.

He tried to film the announcement once before. He went blind in one eye for a week because of it. An autoimmune attack — his immune system turning on his eye, and his brain — meant the video had to wait. And the NHS, he says carefully, didn’t have a huge amount to offer him.(this was actually well documented on Prisoner’s Round /The story of ‘Starry Night'(part 1) available on Ren’s Patreon and YouTube channel)

So he went looking.

A Discovery Made in Desperation

Renegades who’ve followed Ren’s journey for any length of time know that his health has been part of his story for years. The autoimmune battles aren’t abstract — they’ve shaped his music, his worldview, and his relationship with the medical system. “Hi Ren” documented the war inside his own mind. “Sick Boi” looked at the systems that were supposed to help. The body, and what it costs to live inside one that fights you, runs as an undercurrent through almost everything he makes.

So when Ren found a clinic called Breathe — and found that it actually helped — it mattered. Not as a wellness trend. As a lifeline.

Breathe uses Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT): pressurised chambers that flood the body with concentrated oxygen, increasing the amount dissolved in the blood and delivered to tissues. The idea is to work at the cellular level — supporting what Breathe describe as oxygen delivery, mitochondrial function, circulation and nervous system balance. For conditions characterised by chronic inflammation, it’s a different kind of approach to relief.

It helped Ren enough that he bought his own hyperbaric chamber.

The People Behind Breathe

Breathe was founded by Matt and Joe, and their story runs parallel to Ren’s in ways that aren’t coincidental.

Matt was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 21. By 2022, years of medication had taken a toll that extended far beyond his gut — fatigue, brain fog, skin problems, a creeping sense that he was managing symptoms rather than moving toward health. It was during a hospital stay that Joe started searching for alternatives, found HBOT, and they travelled to Liverpool to try it. The improvement was small but real. They bought a chamber. And slowly, unmistakably, things changed. Within six months, Matt was medication-free.

That experience became Breathe. The founding conviction was straightforward: HBOT works best with consistency, but around the world it was priced as a luxury. They set out to change that.

In the video, Ren speaks about Matt specifically — his own journey with Crohn’s, and the kind of care he represents. It’s the care Ren says he would have wanted when he was at his worst.

What Breathe Offers

The current clinic at Breathe is based in Brighton & Hove, at Unit 12, Lady Bee Enterprise Centre, Southwick, East Sussex (BN42 4BW) — sitting between Shoreham-by-Sea and central Brighton, close to Southwick Train Station. All staff are trained and certified by the International Board of Undersea Medicine (IBUM).

Their current therapies include:

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) — the core offering. Members breathe concentrated oxygen in a pressurised chamber, supporting cellular energy production, circulation, tissue repair, immune function, and inflammation regulation. People use it for everything from chronic health conditions to athletic recovery.

Red Light & Near-Infrared Therapy — specific wavelengths of light absorbed by the mitochondria within cells, with the aim of reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and supporting tissue repair.

Breathwork, Sound Baths and Community Classes — coming soon, focused on nervous system regulation, relaxation, and community wellbeing.

Advanced Health Testing — expanding into DNA and epigenetic diagnostics to help members personalise their recovery strategies.

Membership starts from £199 per month (the Stem Plan, covering 8 HBOT sessions), rising to the Core Plan at £349 for 16 sessions, and the Canopy Plan at £499 for everyday use. Pay-as-you-go packages are also available, from £249 for 8 hours of HBOT.

You can find full pricing at breathe-hbot.com/pricing.

Something Bigger on the Horizon

What Ren describes in the video goes beyond the existing clinic. He talks about a sanctuary space — something larger, still in development, aiming to open in Brighton by summer. A place built not just around therapy, but around the thing that people living with chronic illness most often say they’re missing: community. A place to feel seen. A place to feel supported.

“Anyone who’s been living with these conditions,” he says, “will know the support’s lacking.”

He knows it personally. He blogged from bed for years. He felt the isolation that comes when the medical system doesn’t quite have the language for what you’re experiencing. And he made himself a promise, back when he didn’t see a way out — that if he ever reached a point where he could help, he would.

This is him helping.

Why This Matters to Renegades

Ren’s involvement with Breathe isn’t a sponsorship announcement or a brand deal dressed up as something else. It’s a man who found something that changed his life telling the people who care about him that it exists.

For Renegades who’ve been walking alongside Ren’s health journey through his music — who’ve heard the autoimmune battles surface in lyrics, in interviews, in the raw honesty of “Hi Ren” — this is a piece of that story made concrete. A place, a therapy, a philosophy. An attempt to build the support system that wasn’t there when he needed it.

The body, in Ren’s world, has always been part of the work. Breathe is where some of that work is now happening in the real world.

Breathe HBO2T is based at Unit 12, Lady Bee Enterprise Centre, Southwick, East Sussex, BN42 4BW. You can find more information, including services, pricing, and how to book, at breathe-hbot.com.