“I found it quite inspirational. What swayed it was one of the staff who works at the Trust has been through Jericho and I didn’t realise. When someone pointed it out it blew my head a little bit as he didn’t strike me as someone who had been an addict. From that point I just thought if he can get to where he is then that’s where I want to get to.”

That’s how Charlie reflects on his time with the Active Choices programme as he celebrates 18 months clean. The 31-year-old came to Derby to access Jericho House and quickly began to get involved in our Active Choices programme as his recovery progressed. It was his early experiences on the programme that saw him set the goal of volunteering at Jericho House and with the Trust. A goal he has now achieved.

“It’s quite nice to talk about it now because I forget about it sometimes that I am getting what I was dreaming of back when I was in treatment.

“The Volunteering at Jericho is a natural progression, as I was sticking around as part of their aftercare and it was the right thing for me to do to give something back and I have learnt a lot about myself volunteering at the treatment centre.

“With Active Choices I was vocal with the staff that I would like to get involved and be able to help the programme and I just kept turning up to sessions. I turned up to as many as I could and about January time, I sat down with the staff about possible sessions I could help at and what I can offer and it’s just gone from there, being willing and available to help. It’s nice to be the next example and hopefully people can look towards me and think ‘that’s where I want to be’. So, I get a lot out of it and it is a good cause to be putting time in to.”

In the 18 months that Charlie has been clean and taking part in Active Choices he has found a passion for fitness and helped raise around £1500 for the Trust by running the 10K.

“I did the 2021 race, and I took part in the one this year for Active Choices and fundraised for the programme. It was a personal challenge, I have never been that fit a person and any time in the past I have tried to get fit it was in moments of clean time and then I’d use again and it would go to the way side. I take a lot of pleasure now though in being fairly fit and when little challenges like the 10K come up I find them really rewarding to do.”

Since running the Derby 10K, Charlie has also completed the 3Peaks challenge, which he describes as a great experience.

“It was brilliant. It was probably the best thing I have done. When I left treatment, I got offered the chance to join in with a few people a bit further on than me and to begin with it was just the thought of having things to fill up my schedule and it ended up being such an amazing thing to do.

“I remember hearing about it years ago thinking what would possess you to do that but having done it, it was really challenging but rewarding and it gives me faith in myself that I am capable of doing more than I give myself credit for.”

 The challenges don’t stop there for the 31-year-old though as he has plenty to aim for moving forward.

“I haven’t got any more physical challenges in place but I’m going to be doing my GCSEs in September and an NVQ level 3 in Health and Social Care. Those challenges are my priority now and  to get more involved in Active Choices. I am just going through some official checks and I then will be able to get more involved as a volunteer. For me it’s a case of keeping busy and doing what’s right for my recover and next year I’ll be looking at more challenges. There is one in Wales called the Wales 3000 which is the 14 peaks of Snowdonia. There are a couple of us who are talking about that challenge.”