We recently received this touching letter from the mother of one of our students. An amazing reminder of why we do what we do, and how Teen Challenge is impacting not just the students lives but the lives of those around them.
This is Nicole’s story:
"I am the mother of a young man who was taken in by Teen Challenge and given the opportunity to not just make a new life for himself but to live and survive.
I saw my child off on the bus to Teen Challenge Toowoomba at 6ft 1inch and 60kg. His skin was sallow, his face caved in.
Many who meet my child have said that he is a personable, kind hearted young man, which he is, but he was at the mercy of a drug habit that just would not loosen it’s grip on his life and it was about to cost him his life. When he finally made the choice to go into rehab he had been off illegal drugs for over a year but stuck on legal drugs, which were helping him stay off illegal drugs. He had to find a way to get both out of his life. Make no mistake, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was going to bury my child.
A visit to the morgue was in my near future without the Teen Challenge rehab program being available to him and us as a family. If he didn’t die due to the extreme toll the years of drugs had taken on his body, and now the heavy concoction of prescribed drugs, it would be potentially through suicide. He was losing hope, hope that he would never be free from addiction; I could see it in his eyes. At such a young age, life was beating him and he was slowly losing the will to live, struggling to get out from under but desperate for a way out.
Please know that your support of this program saves lives…beyond any doubt.
My son is now free of drugs with a happy and positive outlook. He is also a muscle bound 85kg strapping man with a future.
My son is alive, I am so so thankful that Teen Challenge was available to our family. The thought of burying my baby went through my mind so many times in the last several years and it broke my heart. Drugs do not discriminate, my husband and I were both university educated, earned a good income and had a good supportive family.
These kids make decisions when they are too young and too silly to understand the impact just “trying” will have on the rest of their lives, or may in fact cut them short. They don’t yet grasp the catastrophic financial, emotional/psychological and even physical hell they will inflict on their entire family as a result of their addiction. At that age they are 10 ft tall and bullet proof. There is not a more powerless feeling in the world than being the parent of a drug addicted child because there is not a thing you can do…nothing….nothing but pray and pray and pray..”Please don’t let my child die”.
Please, if there is anything you can do; know there are mothers out there just like me who are so grateful their children are alive, that this program has pulled them back from the precipice …..your support WILL save lives."
Nicole