Ex-addicts helping others through own experience

Craig Whitelock believes everyone is capable of change

Former drug and alcohol addicts are using their own experiences to help others recover.

In the year since it opened, Hartlepool's Community Links has helped about 55 people get "clean and sober", founder Craig Whitelock said.

Mr Whitelock and his colleague Stephen Keers hope their community interest company will provide a safety net and support for others who have struggled as they once did.

One of their clients, Hannah, credits the service with saving her life: "Without people like them, I'd be gone."

Mr Whitelock believes people can change if they are given the help they need.

He kicked addictions to heroin and crack cocaine more than a decade ago and, together with trustees who also have "lived experience" of substance misuse, he now devotes his life to ensuring other people can find support.

"We got our heads together and came up with Community Links because we felt people in our area weren't getting the help they needed and we thought we could make a difference," he said.

"We're putting a dent in it, it's working. We've been open over a year now and have 55 people clean and sober, 10 back in work and two in rehab."

He said the organisation was "growing every week".

Craig Whitelock was a young addict, and is now giving back to his community

Community Link hosts support and social sessions for those with addictions to drugs or alcohol.

Service user Hannah got in touch with Mr Whitelock and begged him for help after losing almost everything she owned.

"When I was younger, it was the party life, I'd sniff cocaine on a weekend," she said.

"When you're in the madness you just think, what's everyone's problem? It's only a few drinks, a few lines of coke - but it's not, it's life or death out there."

Hannah struggled with the pain of losing her grandfather.

"It got a grip of me instantly," she said. "I sold everything, my clothes, the kids' stuff - my house was a shell.

"I lost my house, my kids, my job, everything. I ended up back on the streets, it took me to my knees."

She said when she got in touch with Mr Whitelock for help, she "wasn't eating, wasn't bathing and using substance after substance to block things out".

Hannah now mentors others and said she was "giving back" to the service.

Hannah said the support given by Community Links helped her to find somewhere to stay and to get into rehabilitation

Trustee Mr Keers has been clean for about 25 years, after spending a chunk of his young adulthood in prison.

He said watching some of the service users' lives change had been "amazing".

"[Getting clean] is one of the hardest things they're going to do," he said.

"We still battle daily, it doesn't end because you're so many years into it.

"Being an addict isn't nice, constantly chasing the next fix, chasing cash, lying to family, breaking down bridges.

"But keep going and you can build back those bridges better."