'That man saved my life': The unsung heroes who stop Scotland's drug and alcohol deaths from doubling

At Recovery Walk 2024 in Glasgow, Karyn McCluskey meets former addicts, the people who saved their lives and many others, and those grieving for the loss of a loved one

Last week, on a rainy Saturday at Glasgow Green, I joined more than 2,500 at the Recovery Walk 2024. Hundreds of people threw roses into the Clyde to remember those who had lost their lives to substance use. A floating bed of petals representing loved ones lost to drugs or alcohol, and often both.

It was sombre, and I saw so many people overcome with the emotion of the day, pain etched on their faces. Watching a loved one battle addiction is not a solitary endeavour – the fallout also traps families, friends and partners in its web of chaos.

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So many children were there who had been touched by addiction. So many children who had been left – either temporarily or eternally – without parents or siblings through addiction. So very many.

Happy to be alive

But this was a day of two halves. It was also an uplifting celebration of recovery from addiction and the multitude of people who run recovery organisations around Scotland, bringing joy and hope in equal measure. There were scores of people from across the country, some who’d been in recovery for many years and others, just a matter of months.

I walked beside a woman, who told me how happy she was to be alive and she pointed out an older man who she said saved her life. He told me he was in recovery 30 years, that he was a living example that recovery was possible. He was sage, talking about the epiphany he’d had and the journey he’d made to a different life without alcohol, and in keeping himself well.

I don’t think anyone has fully assessed all the emotional labour of those who run our recovery services. They give their time freely – hours, days, weeks and months – to support people into recovery. What drives them to help those in addiction to change their lives? One might think it would challenge their own sobriety or abstinence to be so close to someone struggling to maintain their own.

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Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous have been helping people recover from addictive substances for years in Scotland and across the world (Picture: Francois Guillot)Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous have been helping people recover from addictive substances for years in Scotland and across the world (Picture: Francois Guillot)
Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous have been helping people recover from addictive substances for years in Scotland and across the world (Picture: Francois Guillot) | AFP via Getty Images

Help available for free

Most people are aware of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, but there are many other recovery groups. An army of people are ready to reach a hand down to others in a hole, who leave a warm sofa to meet someone who has succumbed to a substance stronger than them at that particular moment or spend hours on the phone to another human being who is suffering and needs support to make the right choice.

There is a recovery group that meets your specific needs, whether that be for women only, men with mental health challenges or another group or characteristic. You just need to ask for help.

And it’s free, this wave of people helping repair others and, in doing so, repairing themselves. A colleague recently counted up the volunteering hours that recovery organisations give every week, 2,800 hours and all without payment. It is our most robust and widespread public health intervention. Without them, the deaths from substances would be double, perhaps triple.

As we move into the darker, colder months, spare a thought for those selfless souls who, at a moment’s notice, will be stepping out into the unwelcoming weather to talk, to listen, to support and to act. Quietly saving lives, one day at a time.

Karyn McCluskey is chief executive of Community Justice Scotland

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