'Prevention is better than intervention'

If I can stop one person dying because of my drugs work with DISC's OutThere project it's all worthwhile. I couldn't prevent my brothers death but I can do something for other young people at risk of substance misuse.

I tell them my story and listen to theirs. I pass on information about keeping safe around drugs and alcohol and they in turn pass that on to younger people. I wish peer education had been around around when my brother was 14 and beginning to dabble with dugs. By the time he was 27 he had developed a serious habit. He was just beginning to give up when he was killed in a car accident in which the driver was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

In order to cope with my grief I signed up for a couselling course at Peterlee College. It changed my life. It led to a drugs course and then voluntary work on a young people's mentoring programme for DISC. It didn't matter that I left school with no qualifications because I could really relate to young people. That's is the skill DISC values the most.

I moved onto sessional work and a job with DISC's drug team in Hartlepool. Then I joined a young person's treatment programme run by social services for a year. But when a job opportunity with DISC's OutThere project came up I couldn't turn it down. It felt like coming home.