SADIE'S BATTLE TO HELP OTHERS - "I COULDN'T LET TONY BE ANOTHER
STATISTIC"

Looking back, Derry woman Sadie O'Reilly realises that her son Tony
always had an addictive personality.

However, she could never have guessed that her fit and healthy son
would eventually swap sports and training for cannabis, and
eventually, heroin. In 1999 she found 22-year-old Tony slumped on the
floor at home with a needle by his side.

He was the first person in Derry to succumb to a fatal overdose of the
deadly drug.

However, despite the pain of losing her son and the stigma attached to
his death - and the frustration of having nowhere to turn to still
fresh in her mind - she decided to do something to help others
affected by drug and alcohol addiction.

Working from a tiny room with just a telephone and an old computer,
she set up HURT (Have Ur Tomorrows), a counselling service offering
advice to users and their parents.

Now, thanks to support from Awards for All, she has two paid staff,
one part-time helper and a raft of volunteers.

The well-equipped centre offers training and alternative therapies and
a website was launched earlier this year.

Using Heroin

Tony started on cannabis at 16 or 17, and by 20, he was using heroin.
Sadie said that discovering her son was hooked on drugs turned her
life into a roller-coaster of fear, anger, disappointment and disbelief.

"It was something I knew nothing about, I was oblivious. I did a bit
of research and left newspaper cuttings on his bed hoping he would
read them, but it was no use.

"He was a different person one day, then a couple of days later he
would be Tony again," said Sadie. "It was really hard for the family -
drugs tear families apart. You would do anything to protect your child
and you forget about everything else."

Tony overdosed twice in 1998, once on the heroin substitute methadone
and Sadie tried even harder to get help. "Doctors were treating the
addiction but we wanted to know what lay behind it. There was a lot of
stigma attached to his addiction. People wanted to believe that there
were no drugs in Derry but there were and I wanted to warn people."

In August 1999, Tony was clean for 12 weeks and had seemingly returned
to his old hobbies. But despite staying off heroin for a prolonged
period and re-discovering his love of sport, Tony slipped back once
again, with tragic consequences.

"He was back into his training, he was going for runs and using his
gym in the garage. Tony always had an addictive personality, he was
fanatical about keeping fit. Then the drugs seemed to take over - and
he always took things to the extreme."

"He was back on it for a week before he died. He had injected pure
heroin and died of a heart attack. My husband and I found him - it was
the worst day of my life."

The following days and weeks were a blur to Sadie, but she does recall
her determination to tell the truth about what happened to her son. "I
do remember that I wanted the priest to talk about why Tony died. The
priest told me to think about it, but I thought people needed to hear,
and know that drugs were in this town."

She said that the community's reaction to Tony's death stunned her.
"It was strange. There were 420 cards in his coffin and there were
people I had never met at the funeral, there were a lot of good
people. But on the other hand, when he was using, people regarded him
as a scumbag and he was judged."

Soul Searching

Sadie quit the job she loved as a teaching assistant for children with
special needs and went through a painful period of soul searching.

"As a mother I wanted to understand what heroin does, why they like it
so much, what sort of a hold does it put on people to cause so much
pain and hurt. I even thought about trying it myself. I would have
done anything to take the pain away from him and I felt that I had not
done enough for him," she said.

"From feeling that I had let Tony down, I realised that nobody was to
blame. My counsellor pushed me to set up a centre and said: 'You will
do good in Tony's name."

Addiction Studies

She embarked on a course in addiction studies at the University of
Ulster and applied for charitable status. In 2003 Sadie rented out a
room at Great James Street in the city, with a computer and telephone,
and received her first grant from Awards for All. A second grant of
UKP5,000 from Awards for All helped her move up a step and then a year
and a half later with more lottery cash she relocated to the current
premises in Clarendon Street. "People whose children we had helped
came to volunteer and funding helped us employ an administrator. Word
spread and our clientele got bigger. We started treating younger
people, some 12 or 13, for alcohol and cannabis dependency.

"People appreciated that we treated them like human beings and gave
them respect. We let them know that what they do is up to them but
that they are hurting their families."

Courses in arts andcrafts and therapies including Indian head massage,
reiki, reflexology and acupuncture are available, and Sadie herself is
now training others to deliver some of the services.

12 New Visitors A Day

At present, on average, HURT deals with 12 new visitors a day, each
being put in a programme. The hotline fields calls steadily and there
is often a rise, over the summer, in mothers and fathers bringing
their children in.

What Sadie really wants to do now is open a rehab centre. "It would be
a massive project, but I don't give up! I couldn't have done anything
without Tony guiding me, he is here with me. I couldn't let Tony be
another statistic. He is driving me to help others and every time I
see someone walk out that door feeling better than they did when they
came in, I know I am doing something good in his name."

For more information contact HURT on 028 71369696 or www.hurt.org.uk