Albert’s Story

Albert was street homeless after losing his tenancy due to debt problems. He could no longer deny his gambling had become a problem; Albert needed to take some action. Following a successful assessment process, Albert moved into Halsall House abstinence project to begin his journey to recovery.

It took him a few months to settle in. Slowly, Albert started to take steps to address the underlining reasons for his addictive behaviours. He engaged well with the service and attends weekly training sessions. But something was missing. It was during one of the training sessions where Albert realised, he was bored.

This is a fairly common situation for our beneficiaries. Addiction can lead to a lifestyle of extreme highs and lows. The chaos of addiction becomes a way of life, there is comfort to be found in the roller-coaster of an addictive lifestyle. When a person makes the decision to step off the roller-coaster, life can feel quite mundane, and in turn rather uncomfortable.

In addition, there is a huge time void that exists post addiction. Albert used to visit Bookies all day long; there was company in the Bookies. Friends to meet, just people to talk too. Now what am I supposed to do? Albert would think.

Unfortunately, it was this state of mind that led to Albert suffering a lapse, he gambled all his rent money away and received 28day notice at Halsall house. When deconstructing the chain of events that led to the lapse, Albert was able to recognise the underlining reasons for the slip up; he was lonely and missed the social aspect of his former lifestyle. Until he sourced a suitable replacement to the Bookies, a relapse was only a matter of time.

Thankfully, Albert found his alternative. Volunteering 5 days a week at a local charity shop;

‘Its great to have a little bit of money in my pocket, before I would spend it all in the bookies. And I love the banter with the lads at the shop, I am happy again’ Albert said.

And most importantly, since starting volunteering at the Charity shop in August 2017, Albert has not visited a Bookies. Well done Albert, keep up the good work!

Chairperson’s Award

At Sanctuary Trust, we are always proud to recognise people
who go above and beyond in their service to others…

Y life saved after RSI intervention

Y was found rough sleeping by RSI and accepted into Halsall House in summer 2021 due to being homeless in Rochdale with no local connection. He stayed in Halsall house receiving support and staying drug free for several months. He completed “The Way Out” course alongside Narcotics Anonymous meetings and was doing well. Around November

Adam gets a Job!

My Journey with Sanctuary Trust began after the covid lockdown ended in November 2020. I had spent lockdown bored and depressed like a lot of other people and spent a lot of time considering my options for when lockdown was over. I decided to email John Wigley to ask if I could volunteer in the

Steven have hope for the future

I started smoking cannabis at the age of 10 and crime became a daily thing, this resulted in me being in and out of prison most of my life. I progressed to harder drugs and became institutionalized towards the last few years of my addiction. I was either on the streets, homeless or in prison

My life turned around

I was very young when I started experimenting with drugs, this led to being in and out of prison because of offenses in trying to get access to more. At 36, I got a long term prison sentence, and I lost contact with my family and basically had no one. I was released from prison

My journey from deaths door to seeing the light and coming back to life.

My name is Allan Wood and this is my story. I grew up in Chadderton, Manchester. I had a good upbringing my parents did everything they could to provide the best for us. Before addiction I was into sports, swimming, golf, pool, and football. I often think if I could of have a career in