FORMER BOXING CHAMP DELIVERS ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE TO STUDENTS

Former Canadian boxing champion George Chuvalo fights a different kind of
opponent these days. But his bouts are no less challenging than exchanging
blows with another heavyweight.

These days, Chuvalo fights drug abuse among Canada's youth. It is a no holds
barred, gloves off fight that leaves a lasting impression with the teenaged
spectators.

About 1,700 students at St. Augustine Secondary School recently sat
captivated by Chuvalo's story. His appearance at the high school was
sponsored by Brampton West-Mississauga MPP Tony Clement and the Ontario
Crime Control Commission.

Chuvalo lost three sons and a wife to substance abuse. At times, his vivid
recollections of life and death brought a still silence to the auditorium.

Chuvalo has travelled to more than 300 Canadian schools hoping his story
will prevent students from heading down the same road that killed his sons.

"What happened to my family shouldn't happen to any family," he makes clear
from the outset.

Chuvalo sits on a spotlighted stage, microphone in hand, and leaves very
little of a tragic period in his life unexposed.

The man that twice went the distance with Muhammed Ali also reveals the
strong emotions that linger even after many years have passed.

In the mid-'80s three of Chuvalo's four sons became addicted to heroin.

His youngest son, Jesse, committed suicide. His addiction began with
painkillers prescribed after a motorcycle accident. Nine months after a
friend introduced him to heroin at a party, he was dead. Jesse shot himself
in the family home.

George Lee, another son, died of a heroin overdose. Two days after his
funeral, unable to deal with the grief of losing two sons, his wife
committed suicide by taking an overdose of pills.

Years later, his son Steven died of a heroin overdose less than two weeks
after being released from jail.

He recounted the two months at the end of 1996 and beginning of 1997 when
Steven overdosed 15 times. Chuvalo remembers the details, dates and times of
every overdose, every frantic search for his addicted son, every emergency
run to the hospital as if reading from a log.

"If my son could have seen himself in the future, so out of control, there
is no way he would have ever done drugs," Chuvalo said.

The 65-year-old noted his sons' addictions turned them into criminals. They
would break into veterinarian offices and rob pharmacies to get drugs.

"My sons were law-abiding citizens before they got involved with drugs," he
told students.

Drugs turn beautiful people into monsters, he said.

Drug addiction is a progressive disease that begins with the first cigarette
or drink, he explained to students. "That is what happened to my sons," he
said.

Chuvalo told the teenagers now is the time when they will make the most
important decisions of their lives. His story is a portent of what could lie
ahead for some of them.

His story made an obvious impression with the huge student body. They rose
to give Chuvalo a standing ovation when he was finished. He was mobbed by
teenagers, too young to have followed his career, seeking autographs and
snapshots.

"He's a true inspiration," said Angela Birago-Gyanfi. The anti-drug message
is one students need to hear. But it means more coming from a person who has
seen the dark side of drug abuse first hand, she added. "Coming from a
person of experience it meant a lot."