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I got a really good feeling meeting all the [ARC Fitness] team members—they were incredibly passionate about what they do. They say that recovery is contagious, and I have no doubts that there is a massive recovery contagion in the ARC gym and offices. You could feel the healing ‘atmosphere’. It was really good chatting with...

I really felt the power of community during the walk. Not just the making of friendships, and the conversation and sharing of past experiences, but the sharing of the stunning views in Snowdonia.... I recorded my new friends talking about how they felt about being on the walk and how it it impacted on their recovery and life...

'I think if you were to try and understand 12-step culture just by looking at what was written in the 1930s, you’re not going to really understand what 12-step culture is. You need contemporary ethnographic data to understand how people take up ideas, reject ideas...'

My visits to North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) in Bangor, Eternal Media in Wrexham, BAC O'Connor in Burton-on-Trent, and ARC Fitness in Derry/Londonderry were each very special. The work going on in each of these peer-led recovery communities is amazing and so inspirational! The people I met were fantastic.

It was so good to see Angie and Becky. We reminisced about old friends such as Keith Morgan, Dave Watkins, Lawrence Mylan (RIP), Fred Touhy (RIP), Esther Mead, and WGCADA's CEO at the time, Norman Preddy.  I learnt so much about addiction and recovery whilst interacting with the WGCADA team and the people who accessed...

On the morning of Wednesday, 8 May, I presented two talks to an audience of around 30 people, which included the ARC Fitness team and some of the people attending their organisation's activities, as well as invited guests from the North-West of Ireland who were working in...

I've detailed the roles and qualifications of the ARC team to give you a feel for the variety of skills on tap for people who access services provided by the organisation. I got a really good feel meeting all the team members—they were incredibly passionate about what they do....

I was thrilled to see and hear how well BAC O'Connor was doing at the moment. There is something so special in this recovery community. I felt it all those years ago, and I felt it again during this visit. The passion, the enthusiasm, and the caring about people on their recovery journey. The hope and sense of belonging was palpable.

ARC Fitness was the last of the UK Recovery Communities I was visiting on this trip, the others being Eternal Media (Wrexham), North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC, Bangor) and BAC O'Connor (Burton-on-Trent). These visits were all incredibly inspiring, welcoming, and informative.

'We have been very honoured to have hosted a visit from Professor David Clark who is based in Perth but who took time out on his visit to the UK to spend 2 days with us here at BAC O’Connor. It is 20 years almost to the month that David first met Noreen in the Houses of Parliament and came down to Burton when the then Wired In team...

Wulf and I had a focus group session with NWRC members that was concerned with finding out: (1) what factors at Penrhyn House most benefit members' recovery journeys and (2) in what way—how did these factors impact on the person? We were also concerned in whether the importance of these factors changed over...

The scenery was simply stunning.... The conversation I had with my walking colleagues, all in recovery from addiction but Wulf, was stimulating, enjoyable, fun (lots of laughs) and inspiring. Once again, I realised that I learn more about life from people who have come through the adversity of addiction than from 'normies'.

'Join us for a groundbreaking TEDx talk that challenges the stigma surrounding addiction and offers a fresh perspective rooted in hope. Gary Rutherford explores the transformative power of reframing addiction as a journey of resilience, growth, and recovery....'

Tasty canapés were provided prior to my first talk, which was focused on addiction recovery and My Journey From Brain Chemicals to Human Connection, to an audience of around 30 people. We then had a gorgeous dinner cooked by chef and restaurant manager Jason Hughes...

We covered a good deal of ground including: how the four of us have come to be in the room together; our  individual connections with recovery; a far-reaching discussion on the nature of recovery and how it works, in particular with reference to Eternal Media and NWRC; and how recovery communities survive in the wider system...