LOOK BEYOND ADDICTION

Christina Barnhart hopes to change lives on May 3. She doesn't want
others' lives changed the way hers was May 1, 2007.

Barnhart is hoping people will "unite in May for the hope of a
healthier way" - the slogan for the Look Beyond Addiction awareness
walk she was driven to do after losing the "love of her life."

"I've never used drugs," Barnhart said. Yet she worked hard to to get
him to meetings, to keep Vincent sober. "I walked alongside him.
Slowly his body was taken over by cocaine . that was his weakness."

She lost the fight May 1 two years ago.

"He dropped me off at work and I told him to be good," she recalled.
After work he wasn't there to pick her up, so she took the bus home.

"The landlord found him just before I got home," Barnhart said, the
memory bringing emotion to her voice.

Vincent had used, and had a massive heart attack, she
said.

She recalls talking to him just a few weeks before he died, a time
when things were good. She told Vincent, if anything happened to him,
she would help others for him.

"He said 'I would love that'," she remembered.

"I feel like the drug won," she said. "I hate that."

She's desperate not to allow addiction to defeat others. Though
Barnhart no longer lives in Sidney, it's where she and Vincent met,
just across the street from where the walk will begin, so she was
"heart driven" to come here, she said.

"They're very community-oriented here," she added.

Part of her desire in the rally and walk is to bring community
together - youth, supporters and addicts.

"So many people are frustrated, ashamed or tired from this," Barnhart
said. She's set out with a web site as a "point of reference" for
people, and arranged the awareness walk to inform the community about
how addiction affects everyone.

"I'm hoping to unite the communities. My biggest dream is to have more
treatment centres out there. There's not enough," she said. "When
they're affected by this illness it's got to be accessible fast."

She hopes to make the walk and rally an annual event to raise
awareness. "It's a hard week for me," she said, dabbing her eyes with
a tissue. "But this will help."

The Look Beyond Addiction awareness walk is Sunday, May 3 starting at
the Mary Winspear Centre. Rain or shine, registration is at 10 a.m.
with the rally and 2.5 kilometre walk starting at 11 a.m. For more
information contact Christina at 250-896-0759 or visit
http://www.lookbeyondaddiction.com.