The eighTh NaTioNal Service USer coNfereNce
I CAME TO THE CONFERENCE
REPRESENTING PUSH
Portsmouth
recovery community and Phoenix
Futures. I started my recovery
journey in June 2014 with an
alcohol detox in Cardiff, followed
by residential rehab. It's been a
very rocky road and I’ve struggled
since leaving treatment in
November, but I’ve been
fortunate to have a massive
recovery network wrapped
around me who lovingly
supported me through this
difficult time.
I was thoroughly pleased to
be given the opportunity to attend the
DDN
conference and I found the whole day
inspiring, educational, informative and fun.
When the final speaker, Richard McCann, took
the stage the atmosphere was upbeat and
exciting as he started to deliver his talk. I felt
very engaged as I listened to his heartfelt,
tragic experience. He managed to incorporate
humour and kept the audience captivated
throughout. It wasn't long before he started
to make jokes about the colour of his hair
(being ginger) and asked if there were any
fellow members in the audience. I put my
hand up and he said that he was going to ask
six (ginger) people to join him on stage and
that they would have to sing.
At the time of coming to the conference I
was having some personal issues and was
feeling very uncomfortable in my own skin, but
the way Richard was delivering to his audience
made me feel very relaxed and involved. I didn't
actually think I would have to get up on stage,
and when he said he was joking I felt relieved.
However, ten minutes later, he turned his
attention to me in the audience and invited me
to join him on the stage.
This is when the enormity of what I was
about to do hit me. I was full of fear and very
nervous, but somehow I managed to suppress
these feelings and when I sang I imagined
that I couldn’t see anyone, although it was
very apparent I was standing in front of about
500 strangers. The only other time I have sung
in front of people was in Cardiff's Penarth in
the Park when I was in the depths of my
illness. So to do this drug-free and sober and
then sit through positive feedback was a little
overwhelming. Yet this experience showed me
that I may be able to do things I thought I
could never do – it’s even given me some
encouragement that I may want to pursue
singing at some point.
In the last four years I have been hospital-
ised 30 times with chronic pancreatitis, and
with a heavy heroin addiction and medicated
at 90mls of methadone at the time of entering
treatment, I nearly lost my life. But most of all
I lost my soul. Today not only do I not have to
battle my addiction and risk my life finding
ways to get drugs to see me through the day,
but I can attend a conference on a subject
which is so very close to my heart without
using substances. My parents say I have that
glow back and the twinkle in my eye that they
never thought they would see again.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Sophie Sherrington
came to the conference as a delegate but
found herself on stage singing True Colours to rapturous applause
‘...the
enormity
of what I
was about
to do
hit me...
I was
standing
in front of
about 500
strangers.’
18 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| March 2015
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