AS the Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service (CADAS) puts out an urgent plea for volunteers, one woman has agreed to tell her story.

It is a story about how CADAS helped her to change her life and how she now, as a volunteer can do the same for others.

Louise said deciding to undergo training as a volunteer was simply “life changing.”

It was the profound end to a journey that could have ended in tragedy.

By the age of 34 in 2017 she’d suffered a breakdown. Addicted to cocaine and alcohol, she’d lost her job and her house. Her daughter had left her, and she had moved from one women’s refuge to another, trapped in a toxic cycle of abusive and violent relationships.

In 2019 she was homeless again and became pregnant. Estranged from family and friends, she eventually had to give up her child for adoption.

“I’d hit rock bottom, suffering post traumatic stress disorder and had become an addict again. I was ready to die basically,” she said.

The turning point came after moving to Cumbria when she joined Time to Change West Cumbria.

“It was the first time in my life that I had received support and I was able to come off drink and drugs.”

She was offered a job with the charity and took to public speaking to help others, eventually becoming confident enough to speak before 200 people at an international women’s event and then before the Houses of Parliament.

And, for the first time, she was able to gain stability in her personal life, eventually getting a house and being reunited with her daughter.

By the start of this year she felt confident enough to set up her own consultancy, telling others her story and how she turned her life around.

But she was still looking for a fresh challenge when she spotted details of the Working with Addictive Behaviours training course.

“I thought, I can do that. I wanted to do it because I’ve been addicted to drugs and alcohol and I know how bad it is to be living in that situation - it’s like hell on earth.

“Drugs and alcohol had robbed me of myself so after coming though all of that I really felt I wanted to help others.”

The CADAS course, which is designed to provide CADAS staff and volunteers with the skills to support clients in a range of environments, was a revelation to Louise.

"It just blew me away," she says. "It helped me understand a lot about myself and my past.

"I feel like I reflect a lot on the past now and use what I’ve learned though CADAS and apply that to see where I was going wrong.

"It has helped me with my mental wellbeing, through mindfulness and meditation and it has also helped me to relate to other people better."

And it was the underpinning philosophy of CADAS which became an epiphany for Louise.

“I learned you cannot fix someone’s life but you can give them the tools and it’s then up to them to use them."

Louise’s story is just one of many and demonstrates the essential need for volunteers.

To find more on the Understanding and Working with Addictive Behaviours training email juliem@cadas.co.uk or call 0300 111 4002. To look at volunteering, visit https://cadas.co.uk/support-cadas/volunteers/