Published at 19:43, Thursday, 24 April 2008

A WEST Cumbrian drug charity is going national.

The Rising Sun Trust has caught the attention of some of the highest profile charities in Britain, including Mothers Against Violence, set up in the wale of the death of teenager, Stephen Lawrence and the Damilola Taylor Trust, both of which have asked Rising Sun representatives to speak at their meetings.

Charity founder Dave Smith, and manager Paul Lee have also been working with Active Change, an anti-radicalisation group of Muslims and Christians, have addressed an international conference of Make Mothers Matter and are looking at the possibility of drug and alcohol education at the Royal College of Defence Studies at Shrivingham, near Oxford.

All the national exposure has resulted from former Sheriff of Cumbria, Claire Hensman asking them to take part in an event run by the Active Change Foundation.

From that they met Chris Donnelly of the defence academy, whose wife, Jill, is chairwoman of worldwide organisation Make Mothers Matter.

The two men spoke at a conference attended by delegates from all over Britain and from Africa, Europe and the United States.

Mr Lee said their message is one that has become very clear to him while manning the Rising Sun’s telephone helpline, Signpost.“You can’t generalise but in a great number of cases a father will come onto the phone and he is often full of anger and disbelief. Their calls generally last about 10 minutes.“When a mother calls the call is more likely to take about 40 minutes and what she wants to know is what she can do and how she can help.”

Mr Lee and Mr Smith have invitations to speak all over the country and are spending up to three days a week out of West Cumbria.

“I think we are unique because every one of us has our own story. Every one of us has a background,” Mr Smith said.

But he said the Rising Sun was set up as a West Cumbrian charity and would remain so.

The trust has been running the Liverpool-based helpline for national charity, Parents Against Drug Addiction.

“We were running it at nights but it meant volunteers were often going without sleep. We have decided we need to concentrate on Signpost, our own helpline, first and we can look at working with national charities in the future.”

The Rising Sun Trust urgently needs volunteers.

“The more we have to travel to spread our message, the more we need volunteers here,” Mr Smith said.

Anyone interested can contact the trust on 01900 870034. Anyone needing help, advice or support can ring the helpline on 0800 838449.

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk