77 www.rnca.ca Bernice Hillier · CBC News · : Jun 26, 2022 Inspired by addiction and tragedy, these 2 moms are trying to save lives Pair are first from N.L. to join national network called Moms Stop the Harm Mary Kilroy's son Patrick Bennett didn't set out to get hooked on drugs. After losing him to a drug overdose, she is now working to warn other parents. "We're losing our children," she says. "They're dying. And they're young." The grieving mother wants policy changes, to bring about more treatment options for addiction and safe supplies of illicit drugs. To help push toward those changes, Kilroy, who lives in St. John's, has become one of the first two people fromNewfoundland and Labrador to join a national organization called Moms Stop the Harm, a network of Canadian families impacted by drug addiction and drug-related deaths. She knows her efforts won't bring her son back but hopes she can help save someone else's. "We're losing our children. They're dying. And they're young, and some only try drugs once and they die of fentanyl overdoses," said Kilroy. A life lost to addiction Bennett started out like most little boys, born into a family who loved him and who enjoyed his good-natured ways. But substance abuse ran in his family — Kilroy calls it "a family disease" — and addiction took over the lives of her and Bennett's father, she said. At a young age, he too started using alcohol and drugs as a reprieve from the pain and trauma. By the time Kilroy went into drug treatment and came out in recovery herself, Bennett was using illicit drugs, and a downward spiral seemed inevitable. Still, Kilroy held out hope, and helped as best she could. "My whole reason for turning my life around was to show him that you can live without drugs and alcohol," said Kilroy. She let Bennett live with her until the pandemic hit. His couch-surfing and drug use put him in contact with too many people, she said, and caused worries about exposing her granddaughter, who has breathing problems, to COVID-19. Kilroy asked him to move out. Before that, things had been looking up when Bennett completed an in-patient rehab program in Ontario. But having accumulated fines and jail sentences for a string of crimes committed while using drugs, Bennett's end of rehab meant having to serve out his jail time. Kilroy said that led to her son's relapse, his last before the use of fentanyl-tainted cocaine took his life in February 2021. He was 29. "He was totally powerless. At a young age, he lost his soul to drugs and alcohol," said Kilroy. 'These are not suicides' Michelle Cleary-Haire lives in fear of receiving a call like Kilroy did. Patrick Bennett is pictured as a child and after completing a recovery program in Ontario in 2019. (Submitted by Mary Kilroy) continued
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==