Key facts
Area Wales
Grant recipient: Aberconwy Mind
Project: Conwy Refrain
Programme: Mental Health matters
Date of award: April 2008
Amount awarded: £596,756
He was bullied terribly and his alcohol addiction got so bad he started suffering epilepsy. Today, 45-year-old Lyndon James from Llandudno thanks his lucky stars that he’s still alive after being held in a prison of alcoholism for most of his life.
It was only when his friend of 20 years died from alcohol abuse that he finally had a rude awakening and decided to conquer his alcohol demons before he suffered the same fate.
“I was in a slow learners unit in school and I was bullied terribly for it,” he recalls. “It was awful and they used to urinate on me and all sorts. When I left the school, the bullying stopped but my confidence had already been damaged. So when I went out with friends, I saw that drinking made me more confident and the more I drank, the more confident I became. My feelings of worthlessness were put in the back of my head. They were still there but alcohol masked them.”
At the height of his drinking, Lyndon would down eight or nine pints of bitter a day and on his way home buy bottles of wine to drink before bed. He has now been sober for over four months and feels like he’s been given a new lease of life thanks to the support he received from the Big-funded Conwy Refrain project.
“God knows where I’d be without it,” he admits. “I honestly think I would be dead. They’re helping me to look for work opportunities and even some voluntary work. It’s just good to have somebody out of the family that you can sit and talk to that doesn’t judge you or turn their nose up at you.”
Conwy Refrain project, which is run jointly by Aberconwy Mind and CAIS, received over half a million pounds (£596,756) under the Big Lottery Fund’s £15 million Mental Health Matters programme. It aims to promote the rehabilitation and independence of people who fall between the gaps of services, both in mental health and in substance use.