COQUITLAM MAN'S BATTLE WITH ADDICTION WINS HIM AWARD

Coquitlam resident Rodney Fregin is a 2004 recipient of the Coast Mental
Health Foundation's Courage to Come Back Award.

Fregin, 62, won the award in the chemical dependancy category.

Fregin was eight years old when he started making drug deliveries by bus.
By the time he was 12 he had injected heroin and by 14, was sent to reform
school.

At 16, Fregin had the distinction of being the youngest inmate at the B.C.
Penitentiary, where he was schooled by hardened criminals.

After his release, he embarked on a career of armed robberies to support
his drug habit.

He was released on parole in 1986 after 14 years behind bars. After his
release he went on a four-month binge, where he tried unsuccessfully to
kill himself.

He went from a Salvation Army detox centre to a recovery program at Miracle
Valley near Mission, where he became a Christian and eventually a counsellor.

In 1988, he met his wife, Yvonne, a 2002 Courage to Come Back recipient,
and he has been drug-free since 1989. The couple married in 1994.

Fregin was pardoned in 2002 and now works as a youth support worker at Aunt
Leah's Independent Life Skills Society and is an active member of the
Coquitlam Alliance Church.

He will receive the award at the sixth annual Courage to Come Back awards
dinner, Thursday night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver. Tickets are
available through the Coast Mental health Foundation at 604-872-3502 or
through the website at www.coastfoundation.com.