A recent study by the World Health Organization has found that a third of 11-year-olds in England have drunk alcohol. Chloe Ward was one of these children and alcohol dominated her life for the next decade. However, after years of drinking, she became homeless and ended up living in a car. Two years ago, the now 23-year-old moved to Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney, a former convent where she lives and works with 30 other people who were also previously homeless. Here, she explains her path to getting sober and her plan to thank the charity that she says saved her life.
Alcohol has always been a big thing in Chloe’s family and it was around from when she was a very young age. She was around 11 when she had her first drink. From then on, she used it for day-to-day living. There was a point when everything changed and Chloe started taking drugs, when she was about 14. She started smoking weed and she did cocaine for the first time at 16. Chloe was kicked out of her home at 16 and moved into various places but she kept on messing things up. Eventually, she lived in her car for three months.
When Chloe was 21, she went to a treatment centre for the first time and she had no idea what to expect. A few months later, Chloe moved to Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney where she lives and works with 30 other people who were also previously homeless. Chloe hasn’t drunk for more than 600 days now and she goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every week but it is just one day at a time for her. In August, Chloe is spending six weeks walking 450 miles from Wales to Norfolk to raise money for the charity, with three other companions.
The walk arrives back at their home in Ditchingham on 10th October, which is World Homeless Day. The money they raise will be used to sort out 23 rooms where nuns used to sleep at the former convent where they live. They are planning to then open a bed and breakfast, which they will help to run so that the rooms can make around £20,000 in income, which is the amount needed to keep a homeless person off the streets for a year. It’s Chloe’s way of saying “thank you” because this place has done so much for her
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More