I had one of the most moving experiences of my life on May 9th while attending the Service
#Livesworthtalkingabout at Westminster Abbey organised by  Drugfam. The Service commemorated those whose lives have been lost to drugs and alcohol. Kudos to Elizabeth Burton-phillips and Sarah Bromfield and their team from DrugFam, for their dedication and organisation of this event.

This post appears under ‘Your Stories’ because the Service was for all of you out there who have lost a loved one to drugs or alcohol. Many of them are no longer here with us – and many still are here, but they are lost too, unless they find recovery.  Lives Worth Talking About touched all of your stories.

I will talk more about what was said at the Service in a later post, but for now I wanted to highlight a particular moment that happened.

It was when the Reverend Graeme Skinner asked everyone in the Abbey to say the name of someone they loved who either had died due to addiction, or who is still here, in active addiction.

We waited for the count of three.

Then two thousand voices simultaneously named someone who meant everything to them. The voices – and those names – resonated throughout the lofty Abbey that has witnessed the ritual marking of events central to this country’s history.

It doesn’t get any more powerful than that.