BOXER DELIVERS STRONG ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE

Lost Three Sons To Drugs

Former Canadian heavyweight boxing champ George Chuvalo spoke to White
Oaks Secondary School students Monday concerning all the pitfalls of
drugs his son Steven would have warned them about - if he hadn't died
alone of a heroin overdose, that is, syringe still embedded in his
arm.

Chuvalo - whose heroic career in the ring included going toe-to-toe
with Muhammad Ali - immediately connected with the crowd through his
sheer physical presence and echoing legend, despite the fact his
audience was largely young enough to be his grandchildren.

Yet it was his family story, a tale which can only be described as
horrific, that enveloped the auditorium in a pin-drop silence and held
the students' stunned attention for a full hour as Chuvalo described
the deaths of three of four sons and the suicide of his wife.

"What happened to my family shouldn't happen to any family," he said.
"You never heal."

Born out of this despair and grief, however, has been Chuvalo's
commitment to speak to young people about drugs, self-respect and
ultimately love, even though the act of doing so takes a visible toll
on the still-imposing ex-champ.

"This is the most important time in your life...when you really become
the architects of your future," he said, adding that decisions made
today will affect the students forever.

Chuvalo, who was never knocked out or knocked down in 97 professional
bouts, relentlessly chased the heavyweight crown he would never wear
and cast a larger-than-life shadow over his sons. At the same time,
his family members always understood they were loved, he said, a fact
that makes their deep-seated hopelessness all the more upsetting.

"I tried to be the best parent I could be," he said. "You can only do
the best you can."

Chuvalo then led the students through a sad narrative in which sons
Jesse, George Lee and Steven immersed themselves in the west-end
Toronto drug scene - including resorting to crime to feed their habits
- - as their father did everything in his power to be their guardian
angel.

Steven, for example, overdosed 15 times during a two-month
period.

Such was the hold heroin had on his loved ones, Chuvalo explained,
that George Lee and Steven would "crap their pants" upon seeing the
drugs they craved in their dealer's hand. Before attending to their
dignity, though, the boys would first shoot up.

"Only then would my handsome sons clean themselves up," he said.
"Every time I tell that story I feel sick to my stomach. I don't like
to talk about my sons like that."

Jesse, the first Chuvalo son to become an addict, put a gun in his
mouth only nine months after his introduction to heroin. His suicide,
said his father, "sealed the fate of his brothers and his mother."

George Lee died with a needle in his arm in a seedy hotel room in
1993. Two days after his funeral - an event Steven attended high on
heroin - Chuvalo's wife Lynne swallowed the pills she'd kept in her
hope chest "for a day when there was no hope," lay down in her son's
bed, and died.

Steven, just 11 days out of jail, was found in a chair at his sister's
apartment, needle in his arm, an unlit cigarette still held between
his fingers.

"Before my beautiful son could even light a cigarette, he was dead,"
said Chuvalo, who explained that a month before his death Steven
agreed to speak out against drugs to youth. "He wanted to talk to you
about so many things...but he was doomed to die."

So, in Steven's place, his father travels the country telling young
people all the things he knows his son would want them to know, like
get an education, foster self-respect and above all don't begin the
downward spiral by smoking and doing drugs.

After all, he said, after you disrespect yourself with your first
cigarette, it's easier to hold your body and spirit in contempt by
trying alcohol, marijuana and worse.

"If my son could have seen a glimpse into his future, no way would he
have become a drug addict. No way," said Chuvalo. "If my sons were
here for 20 seconds they'd tell you doing drugs is insane. The life of
an addict is a horrible life."

Chuvalo, who received the Order of Canada for his anti-drug efforts,
then implored his listeners to "make important decisions at critical
points in your life," since mistakes made now can come back to haunt
them later.

"You have the power to change the course of history of your own
family," he said.

Chuvalo, now 67 and re-married to a woman with two children, still
manages to find joy in the lives of his daughter Vanessa, his eldest
son Mitchell, who teaches high school, and his grandchildren. He is
also a steadfast believer in the redemptive power of love.

"Love is important to all of us," said Chuvalo, who asked the students
to go home, hug their parents and tell them they love them.

"I love you ... the most important words in the English
language."

Please visit Chuvalo's Web site, www.fightagainstdrugs.ca.