This blog was written by Anyone's Child member, Hilary, for International Overdose Awareness Day It's been a little over 5 years since my oldest son Ben died from a heroin overdose when he was 27. Ben had so much potential to give to the world and, above all, he was a kind and [...]
This blog is written by Anyone’s Child member Hope Humphreys. A truth, universally acknowledged, is that laws are there to keep us safer. But is it true? What about UK Drug Laws? The Government doesn’t approve of drugs. People must not use them, end of, and there are strict, punitive, policies to stop us. [...]
Anyone’s Child Lobby of Parliament 2023, held on the 27th of June, was an annual event that advocates for a paradigm shift in current drug legislation. The people attending a new government approach that focuses on safety and harm reduction rather than criminalisation posed by the judicial system that is currently mostly used. The [...]
Anne-Marie's journey, a mother who lost her daughter to an ecstasy overdose Photos: Nigel Brunsdon. Originally published in the magazine Cáñamo. This blog was originally written by Núria Calzada and published in the magazine Cáñamo. The original can be read - in Spanish - here. We spoke to Anne-Marie Cockburn just days [...]
Hilary at the Anyone's Child lobby of Parliament 2022 It’s been 4 years since my son Ben died from a heroin overdose. I would like to say the grief has lessened and I have come to some kind of peace and acceptance, but the truth is I haven’t found any peace. The [...]
All grief is isolating. We cannot help but feel that we are alone in the pain and the sadness of our loss. But in many ways I have been fortunate because I have been very well supported by a partner, close friends and family who have been extraordinarily understanding, who have reached out to [...]
This blog was written by Brian, a member of the Anyone's Child Family Network. In my previous blog post, I talked about the shame associated with drug taking: how that shame is at least partly a consequence of the criminalization of the use of drugs, how that shame leads to isolation, and how that isolation [...]
This blog was written by Anyone's Child campaigner Brian, whose son, Tom, died three days after his 37th birthday. This blog is the first of a series of reflections about my son’s death and the circumstances in which it took place. When my beloved son died in April 2020, it was in the middle [...]
This blog is written by Anyone's Child campaigner, Brian. People often say that you can never be prepared for the death of your child. I cannot imagine anything more shocking and distressing, but there are ways in which I had been preparing for it from the moment he was born. I wasn’t ready for it. [...]
This guest blog was written by Penny McCanny, mother of Aidan and Anyone's Child Campaigner. Penny will be speaking at our next webinar, Northern Ireland: Take Drugs Seriously on Thursday 1st April 19:00 BST. Register here. We talk frequently of life changing moments; sometimes about events that are really not all that life [...]
