HOW MY THREE DAUGHTERS FELL INTO THE GRIP OF HEROIN

A WOMAN who watched helplessly as three of her four daughters became heroin
addicts said yesterday that she was afraid the drug would kill her youngest
child.

Theresa Dodd, a nurse, spoke of her despair, anger and pain over what has
happened to her children, all of whom are now aged over 18.

Mrs Dodd and her husband, Charles, a senior partner in a London solicitors'
firm, raised four girls and sent them to good schools in Tunbridge Wells,
Kent, a place whose name is a byword for Home Counties' respectability.

That three of their children became trapped in the merciless cycle of
heroin abuse and addiction is a fact they can still barely believe.

"I am so frightened, so frightened and so angry," said Mrs Dodd, a
grandmother. "Not angry with anyone but just angry that there isn't
anything anyone can do."

"I feel like a wrung-out rag. I am bleeding on the inside. You cannot see
the blood but I am bleeding from distress."

Antonia Turner, one of her daughters, stopped taking heroin a year ago and
appears to be on the road to recovery.

"When I look back to the time when I was a kid, I could never have imagined
I would do anything like this," she said. "I don't think people realise the
dangers of addiction until they are addicted themselves."

Another of Mrs Dodd's children is battling to stay off the drug but the
family is most worried about Angelica, 21, the youngest daughter, who is
living rough and begging on the streets to get her next fix.

Mrs Dodd said: "I really want Angelica to take herself forward and
understand that what she is doing is really serious. I will never let go
and never stop doing whatever I can to show how much I love her. I don't
want to go to my daughter's funeral."

The recent publication of pictures of the body of Rachel Whitear(/A), the
21-year-old student who died from a heroin overdose, prompted Mrs Dodd to
seek help from other parents.

"I have seen a picture of the dead body and I fear being one of those
parents who talks after her children's death. People keep saying 'Did you
know what was happening?' but I really did not have any idea."

Mrs Dodd told BBC South East Today that there was a lack of support for
parents like her, who struggled to know what to do when their children fell
into addiction.

"I do get a lot of support from the Roman Catholic Church and from my
friends because I am very open."

"But I really need to find the other mothers so that we can do something
between us. There may be nothing we can do to stop our children being
addicts but at least we can support ourselves."

Canon Michael Evans, parish priest of St Augustine's, who has helped Mrs
Dodd, said that, despite its reputation as a place of middle class
affluence, Tunbridge Wells had a serious drugs problem.

"I am afraid I don't think we are any different in Tunbridge Wells from any
other part of the country in that respect," said Fr Evans.

"The young people of Tunbridge Wells know that drugs are easy to get hold
of. That is not to say that all young people here take drugs but, perhaps
in middle-class areas, the problem is worse because young people have money
to buy drugs."

"The police and schools are aware of the difficulties and the challenge and
are trying to address that. Schools all have drugs education policies."

Fr Evans, whose church hosts a Narcotics Anonymous group, said that, while
there were programmes to support addicts, there was often little help for
parents left wondering what had happened to their children.

"There is often a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. These
high-profile cases of young girls have a great shock value but I'm not sure
they deter addicts any more than pictures of damaged livers deter alcoholics."

Hugo Luck, regional manager for the National Treatment Agency, said drug
addiction did not recognise social class boundaries.

"There is a growing amount of drug use, not just in the inner cities. This
is a problem throughout the country, regardless of affluent activity. Some
figures have suggested that the highest rates of use are amongst the
higher-paid areas."

Tunbridge Wells has gained a reputation as a centre for recreational drug
abuse. Kevin Lynes, a local Tory county and borough councillor, said last
night: "Young people will tell you the town is somewhere you can get
whatever drugs you want. It is seen as a drugs capital."