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A very important part of James’s initial vision concerned the permeability of Penryhn House—activities would seep in and out of the place. This permeability increased over time and NWRC moved from being a singular community to an initiative with multiple communities.

Wendy describes herself as having a general positive attitude to life and enjoying the natural world. Her relationships with people have helped her recovery journey. Thinking about how to help other people and contributing to knowledge about addiction and recovery...

Like a stained glass window, with its different elements that make the total picture, John was known to all of us through many different contexts. Yet, he had a life richer and fuller than the parts we each knew. He was known to us, this diverse and disparate community, by a variety of names; JC, John Dogs, John Quack, John Vietnam and...

'The results of that first meeting, and the effect on my life, were immense. I’m certain that there is a small element of hope—or faith or some kind of spiritual flame—that burns inside us all. I believe it’s never completely extinguished, but can become so dim that it’s almost invisible to us. It was rather like that flame was fanned by my...'

After researching biological mechanisms underlying addiction for many years, I spent time with practitioners and clients at a treatment agency in Swansea, WGCADA, where I learnt a good deal about the nature of recovery and the elements that facilitate treatment.

On Friday 29th September, North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) held their first full service of remembrance and hope. We gathered in Saint Deiniol’s Cathedral, Bangor, and expressed gratitude for being alive and kicking; and regret and sorrow for those...

I just wanted to let you know that I have posted three Story posts today, all of which focus on my Recovery Voices colleague Wulf Livingston. These posts follow on in the vein of our 15 earlier posts, in this moving from Wulf's early drug and alcohol use, through to his early and...

Our new website, Recovery Voices, is officially one week old. I thought I'd give you an initial update in this blog post. First of all though, I'd like to thank all of you who have visited the website and those who have signed up as Followers of our Recovery Voices Facebook page—which we will be using to inform you of new content posted...

Eternal Media is an innovative and inspiring recovery community, which was created by Marcus Fair for the 'Now What?' People in long-term addiction who are wanting to stop using and change their lives, particularly those who have become isolated from mainstream society, are faced with this key question: 'Now What?'

'I have enormous respect and even awe for people who’ve managed to conquer addiction. Interestingly, many usually don’t stop there. They go on to do extraordinary things, professionally and otherwise, that mere ‘normies’, as those of us not in recovery are called, rarely...

Wulf describes coming into the addiction treatment field as someone who was not conventional. He wasn’t recognised as a professional, even though he had a Social Work qualification and a Masters in alcohol studies. He initially failed to get a job after seven or eight interviews until he was appointed at Lifeline by Ian Wardle.