RUNNING AWAY FROM DRUG ADDICTION

Love for her unborn child got Vanessa Roulette to quit cocaine for nearly
a year back in 2005. Then the shame of smoking cocaine in front of her
young son that got her to give it up again in 2007, hopefully this time
for good. And finally, the depth of her caring or other young people
prompted her to walk from Winnipeg to the Lake Manitoba First Nation
earlier this month.

Roulette wanted to spare others the horror that she went through because
of her addiction to crack cocaine. She also wanted people who were already
hooked to know that they can give up drugs.

"Anybody can do it if they try hard enough," said the 27-year-old Ojibway
mother of three who completed the 175-kilometre walk in three days,
arriving the evening before Lake Manitoba's pow-wow, which was June 8.

On May 29 Roulette had been in Market Square in downtown Winnipeg during
National Day of Action activities. For a couple of weeks prior she had
been thinking about walking to her home First Nation to raise awareness
about addiction among youth. She also wanted to raise money for a dry
nightclub in Winnipeg.

Grand Chief Morris Swan Shannacappo of the Southern Chiefs' Organization
heard about her plan and brought Roulette on stage to make the
announcement. Cole Choken, who ran Calgary to Winnipeg last year to raise
money for the fight against diabetes, was in the audience. Like Roulette,
Choken, 22, was a member of Lake Manitoba First Nation. He offered to join
her.

On June 5 about two dozen people gathered for the morning send-off. There
was a drummer and a sharing circle. A lot of emotion expressed by the
people, many of whom had gone through recovery and healing themselves.

That day Choken and his mother Brenda jogged while Roulette walked and a
teenager who had been treated for cocaine addition both walked and ran.
The second day they were by themselves and the final day as they
approached Lake Manitoba they were greeted by other runners including
Roulette's older brother Berry McLean and his son Martin.

Being able to run on the final day was a triumph for Roulette, who had
been unprepared for having to walk more than 50 kms a day on the graveled
shoulders of Highway 6. By the first afternoon she was already limping.

"I had people counting on me," she recalled at the pow-wow, explaining why
she never considered quitting.

Choken, meanwhile, wore a warm black jacket although it was sunny. He was
preparing for heat expected during his next run, which is to start deep in
Mexico and end in Winnipeg. His mother meanwhile showed gritty
determination running into the night.

"Woman are our life-givers," Swan Shannacappo said during the pow-wow,
where he was an announcer. "She breathed life into the run that first day.
She was a mother running for her son."

Roulette and Choken were introduced to the crowd at the pow-wow, included
in the grand entry and later recognized with an honour song. Earlier they
had been welcomed by a crowd of people gathered at the Lake Manitoba gas
station.

Ironically, Roulette's problems began at Lake Manitoba. She says she had
wonderful parents and a great family (her brother Paul Cawson and his wife
followed her in their car for the entire trek and other family members
came to the pow-wow.)

Roulette's father died when she was nine and her school years were
unhappy. "Going to school I was picked on - bullied - and because of that
I grew up hating the world," she says, adding that she no longer holds
grudges. She has come to see that bad feelings get in the way of her
recovery and happiness.

At 15 she moved to Winnipeg and when she was 19 her mother died. That hit
her hard and soon afterward she turned to cocaine. She became hooked and
spent much of the next eight years on cocaine. She used cocaine during her
second pregnancy and the baby was affected, she explains.

"I am the one who hurt her and she is suffering and I have to live with it
the rest of my life," says Roulette, who said she didn't realize the
consequences of using while pregnant. Because of what happened to her
second child, she quit cocaine in 2005 for her third pregnancy although
she went back to using afterward. Now she wants to help other people avoid
repeating the things she did because of cocaine. That, she says, is why
she is willing to reveal so much about her own life.

McLean, 40, remembers how his sister sinking into addiction while living
in the inner city and North End of Winnipeg. "But she never gave up" he
adds. "This shows that deep down she had the heart to want to stop..I am
so proud of her."

Cole will help her prepare for future walks and runs. She said
representative of two First Nations, Sandy Bay and Peguis, have already
approached her about walks. More information will be forthcoming. She is
also looking at becoming involved in other fundraising activities to
create healthy options for youth. She also said that she has a Facebook
page.