EX-ADDICT FIGHTS WAR ON HEP C

Leads Drive Against Needle Sharing

When he was a teenager growing up in St. Vital, Bill Buckels was at
the forefront of the drug invasion -- as a user.

Now 49, Buckels is spearheading a campaign to stop intravenous drug
users from sharing needles in an attempt to slow the spread of
hepatitis C, a disease he's carried for 33 years.

Buckels is not contagious, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine,
but he knows he will never be cured.

"There is no cure, there is only treatment," he said prior to a
ceremony yesterday at the Manitoba Legislature to mark May as
Hepatitis C Month.

"I used intravenous drugs when I was young, and it came back to haunt
me," he said.

Buckels remembers the day he infected himself. He was shooting up
with some friends in Vancouver when a woman offered him the balance
of her heroin shot.

Lost Ability To Reason

"She told me she was hep-positive and there was blood on the needle,"
recalled Buckels. "I didn't care. I was high all the time and didn't
care. I'd lost the ability to reason."

A director of HepCURE, an organization dedicated to hiring street
workers to educate needle users, Buckels hopes his children do not
follow his almost destructive path.

The sins of the father forced the family to move from St. Vital 15
years ago because Buckels did not want his children marked by his
reputation.

There are an estimated 15,000 carriers of hep C in the province. That
number is expected to triple in the next 10 years.

Dirty and shared needles will account for the majority of new cases,
compared with an estimated 10 new cases from blood transfusions. "If
there are a group of kids shooting up with the same needle and one of
them is infected, they all get it," said Buckels.

Research shows 40% of HIV-positive people also have hep C. Some
needle users believe they can use bleach to clean needles, but
studies dispute the effectiveness of bleach, even those used by
tattoo parlours and body piercing outlets, said Buckels.

Hepatitis C attacks the liver and causes chronic pain, fatigue and
disorientation.

"The liver can not flush out the waste from the blood and you walk
around with a king-sized hangover," he added. "It got to the point
where I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs."

HepCURE will present a report on hepatitis prevention to a national
Cocaine Anonymous convention set for Winnipeg next month.