Former addict now teaches at hub that turned his life around

A former addict who has credited a recovery centre with helping him get over alcohol dependancy is now helping others by teaching at the same facility.

The Blackpool Recovery Hub, which opened last year, provides practical support and guidance through counselling and sessions including IT and creative activities.

Luke Gribbon is one of many people who have found the hub a lifeline and has now pledged to use his own experiences to help others.

He said he was "so grateful" the centre helped him break free of his addiction and now teaches meditation and yoga at the hub.

Gribbon spent his early years living his dream life as a musician but his relationship with alcohol gradually developed into dependency, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He said he had to step away from music to try to get sober, but despite his efforts, he struggled to make lasting change.

"I tried to do it on my own and found that quite difficult," he said.

However, his life began to turn around when he discovered recovery meetings and later the Blackpool Recovery Hub on Church Street.

"It was only when I started to connect to other people like me that I could really get well again," he said.

"The power of connection with people who understand you, who you can share with, you share your story with them and they share their story with you and there's something really powerful in that."

During his recovery, he qualified as a meditation teacher and has since completed yoga teacher training with funding from the hub.

Now nearly two years sober, Gribbon's advice to anyone new to the centre is to get involved and try as many activities as possible.

He said: "The key thing about the recovery hub is that it's constant, you can keep going back and it's so welcoming.

"If you go to rehab, no matter how good it is, once that course is over, you're out of there.

"It's not like that here – the power of connecting to people is amazing, every day it empowers you."

Brian Simpson told BBC North West Tonight how he moved from North Wales to Blackpool when he wanted to get off drugs, and later became manager of the hub.

"I started off on the lower class drugs and then went for the higher class drugs," he said.

"I moved up from Blackpool because there was more of a recovery community up here.

"I'm from Wrexham. No disrespect, the recovery community is there, but it was small. What I found about Blackpool is it is a lot bigger."

Prof David Best is a leading expert in recovery and addiction.

He said: "The single biggest predictor of who does well in recovery is switching your social networks from networks supportive of drinking and drug use to networks supportive of recovery.

"So bringing people in recovery together strengthens, but it also gives people the opportunity still in active addiction to see addiction recovery is possible, it's realistic, it's attractive and it's something to aspire to."

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