Addiction Awareness Week

LEIGH people recovering from addiction were among those who met Catherine, Princess of Wales, during a special event marking ‘The Big Addiction Conversation’.
The princess made her visit to mark this event during Addiction Awareness Week.
As patron of The Forward Trust, a charity supporting people recovering from addiction, the Princess visited its new green space at Garon Park, Southend.
She met service users including Catherine, a recovering alcoholic from Leigh, who has been sober for more than six months with support from the Trust.
The 45-year-old told the Princess about a moving letter her daughter Mia, 21, wrote begging her to give up alcohol, which became a turning point in her recovery.
A spokesperson for the Forward Trust said: “One of the biggest reasons I love doing the job I do at The Forward Trust Southend is seeing our clients and volunteers’ smile.
“At our event at Garon Park, Kate Middleton brought so many smiles and moments of laughter to everyone.
“It’s moments like these that remind me why we do what we do and make it all so worthwhile.”
The Princess described the green space as a “fantastic environment” and told Liam King, who leads conservation at Garon Park: “Spaces like this are so vital for lots of different organisations to be able to come together and use.
“Often people don’t know where to go.”
The Big Addiction Conversation is a new national movement from the Forward Trust, created to change the way Britain talks about addiction.
For this year’s campaign, the Forward Trust is aiming to start 17,000 conversations about addiction, to mark the number of lives lost to drug or alcohol-related causes in the UK each year.
A spokesperson for the Trust added: “Here in Southend, our recovery community continues to bubble with conversation, connection, hope and encouragement every single day.
“Let’s keep talking, keep listening and keep breaking down those barriers.”
Picture: Kate Middleton by Tom Soper Photography

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