“I grew up in an environment where drug and alcohol user were a normal part of everyday life. I became involved in criminal activity and offending at an early age and as a consequence spent much of my teenage years in youth institutions and prisons. In my 20’s I managed to stay away from IV use of heroin and other hard drugs, but continued to use alcohol, cannabis, LSD, amphetamines and other drugs. I was still involved with criminal activity but had learned how to “not get caught”. I stayed out of legal system for the next 20 years until, following personal, financial relationship difficulties; I became involved in serious drug offending. I was arrested and sentenced to a long prison sentence. During this sentence I attended and completed a Drug Treatment Unit (DTU) at Springhill Prison. It was during this time at DTU that I met and built relationships with members of Recovery First. On my release I became heavily involved with RF, attending activities and helping others out of the cycle of addiction and offending. As a member of RF, I helped set up a support groups of DTU graduates, which is still running after 2 years. RF has played a huge part in my recovery. I am now over 8 years clean, I work in the alcohol and drug treatment field, and have reached Post Graduate level studies. I have strong relationships with members of RF, and they continue to play a leading, guiding role in my life. Without RF, I doubt I would have been able to maintain recovery, and I have seen the same transformation from many others.”

“I have done anything and everything to get the drugs that I needed, but it is different for me today. I am in recovery and able to find some purpose in existing without the use of drugs. I’ve found that if I put my recovery first and if I try really hard in my daily life, then things will happen – maybe not exactly how and when I want it, but I don’t try to figure it out. I just know that it works for me and for that I am truly grateful.”

“I did five years in prison and have since stayed clean. Living in the general population was hard. I read what literature I could get, I went to meetings when they were held, but it was difficult for me. I had been in jail for a long time. I came to a point where I admitted that I was powerless over my addition. That my life had become unmanageable was evident to me – I just had to look around me and see the locked gates. I knew I didn’t want to use. I knew there was a better life for me. We all have the disease of addition. We all do things that we are not proud of, but today we have the chance to work through that and make a change, and that’s were Recovery First helped me.”