Voice of hope for drug users who want to kick the habit

Nov 12 2007 by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

A FORMER drug addict is dedicating his life to helping others kick the deadly habit.

Until he cleaned up his act, Hugh Burke’s life had descended into a vicious cycle of drugs and chaos, taking a terrible toll on his body.

At his lowest ebb in life, he was just a bag of skin and bone weighing less than seven stone with bruised ankles and arms from repeated attempts to inject himself with amphetamines and other stimulants.

But the turnaround in the 44-year-old’s life has been remarkable and he is now hoping his example can inspire others to quit drugs for good.

Hugh, from Brynmenyn, near Bridgend, is an active member of the South Wales-based drug users’ organisation, Y Llais (The Voice).

He has ambitious plans to help turn Y Llais into a Wales-wide network of support groups for addicts desperate to stop taking drugs.

His ultimate ambition is to forge a career working professionally with drug addicts.

Hugh said the Probation Service has played a key role in building his new-found confidence.

“They don’t patronise, they don’t talk down to you. I think it’s fantastic what the Probation Service do. They are very good at what they do.

“My own probation officer is very supportive of what I’m doing with Y Llais. He’s passed me magazines and given me addresses and names. It’s very useful,” he said.

The renewed hope in Hugh’s life is a far cry from the depths of despair to which he was driven when his drug taking spiralled out of control.

Originally from Pyle, Hugh can trace his drug-taking back to an occasion when he was 12 years old when he took some tablets from his mother’s medicine cabinet.

He said, “The next thing I knew I was bouncing around, I had so much energy. I can’t remember what they were but they weren’t aspirin.

“Once I showed my ‘magic tablets’ to my friends, they were all doing it.

“It just escalated from there and within three years I was taking amphetamines intravenously.

“One thing led to another and before long we were into Class A drugs. My mother died and I went even more off the rails, went totally out of control and took an overdose of Valium.

“My elder brother was in the forces in Germany and he invited me over. Once I got over to Germany my brother helped me find a job and with the job came a career and somewhere to live.

“I started off as a trainee butcher and finished up running the hi-fi department in the NAAFI.”

But Hugh’s drug-taking continued to spiral out of control and eventually led to him quitting his job.

“I was totally screwed up,” he said. “I wanted out of the drugs. I wanted out of the lifestyle and the lies but it wasn’t that simple. I came back to Wales with the intention of coming off drugs but I couldn’t do it.

“I went totally overboard – I was totally oblivious to what was going on around me – my life was absolute chaos.

“By this time I weighed less than seven stone and had to wear children’s clothing because I was so small – I was wearing 24in waist corduroy trousers.”

With the help of the Salvation Army – and the support of his cousin Kathryn Jones and her mother, Carol – he secured a place in the Leeds Addiction Unit, a rehab centre in Yorkshire.

Hugh said, “The support framework there was absolutely fantastic. They helped me find somewhere to live and they helped me find a job – and things flourished.

“After a few years in Leeds, I felt it was time to come home. In the 1980s, when I was in Germany, I used to have blackouts – it turns out that I have epilepsy, two forms of it.”

While Hugh’s life has improved beyond recognition after he conquered his addiction in 1995, things haven’t been easy and there have been other problems apart from the epilepsy.

Seven years ago, he was attacked and stabbed after an intruder broke into his flat, which left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was later convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, in a separate incident, and given a suspended two-year prison sentence under the supervision of the South Wales Probation Service.

With their help, Hugh has got his life back on track again and is devoting his time to helping current drug users and working voluntarily for an environmental charity, the South Wales Nature Trust.

He said, “I want to set up a buddy system, including users and former users – so that someone can help someone else and so on.

“The idea is to provide mutual support and gather information so that we can implement change where change is needed.

“Y Llais is in its infancy but it is spreading. I want to set up small groups in different areas and have a representative from each area. I intend to see Y Llais flourish throughout Wales.”

Probation officer Mike Carley said, “It’s absolutely fantastic for me to see somebody who’s been through the mill with drugs coming out the other end and doing something really positive like this.

“Hugh is an articulate guy and there’s no doubt that some people will only really respond to ex-users themselves.”