Caleb's campaign

Sometimes you come across a person, or an event, that makes you stop and reassess things completely. Shielmor Twomey, the lady pictured next to me here, is one of those people.
When she came to see me, she explained that her son, Caleb, had committed suicide just months earlier, in January of this year. He was a lovely, bright, popular young man, who was pursuing a career in modeling - as you can see from the photo of him on the bench. But he had started taking ketamin, and he reacted so badly to it that in January, he took his own life.

His mum has bravely soldiered on, and is now starting a campaign, which I am helping her with, to raise awareness about the dangers of ketamin. This afternoon, on College Green, we unveiled a bench dedicated to Caleb, and let fly 28 balloons - one for each year of his life - with his family and friends. I've tabled an EDM ( Early Day Motion) and Caleb's mum is launching her campaign to try to prevent anyone else from going through anything like this.

Congratulations Bristol Drugs Project!

Congratulations to Bristol Drugs project - who hosted a reception last night, with a surprise twist. The morning of the event, they found out that they had been given a massive boost to funds from the department of health.

In the past, Bristol has had well under its share of funding, so when I talked to Maggie Telfer (above, left) who heads BDP, they were excited about the tremendous opportunities that will now be opened up to them.

But for me the most memorable part of the evening was hearing the account of ex-user, Mark, of how BDP had helped him. Hearing first hand what life coming off drugs is about made the funding figures ( on the big pink screen behind us) jump out and become real people, real lives. Thanks Mark, and well done, BDP.