Waterlooville mum determined to end stigma around addiction following death of son

Hilary Mills started campaigning for change following the death of her son, Ben, who died at the age of 27 back in 2018 following years of battling addiction. He had been struggling with different forms of addiction from a youngster but in the months leading up to his death, he began trying to get his life back on track.

On September 27, a drug awareness discussion event was held at the Waterlooville Community Centre in a bid to take the necessary steps to break down the stigma surrounding addiction. The event was open to everyone including people struggling with addiction, family members, charities and support.

Hilary said: “I’m particularly passionate about harm reduction because at the present, I think the way we deal with it by making things illegal just isn’t working.

“I think people have got misconceptions. They think if someone is an addict they are dirty and most of all, I feel that they think it’s their choice and somehow they feel they are doing it by choice when actually it’s an illness. It’s treated like it’s their fault so they then don’t think they don’t deserve any help because they bought it on themselves.

“I think particularly families struggle with talking to people about it because they somehow feel guilty.

“I personally felt very isolated, I didn’t know where to go for help - I felt everyone was judging me, thinking it was my fault and I think it’s really important for people to say their stories because every story is slightly different and a lot of addiction is trauma based.”

The event gave people the opportunity to talk about ways to try and tackle the stigma and support people struggling with addiction. The discussion was organised by Hilary who has been working with alongside Anyone's Child which is a campaign to change drug policy.

In a previous interview, Hilary said: “I think a lot of it was down to lack of confidence. The more he got into it, the worse he got, it was like a merry go round.

“It was an accidental overdose and I really do believe that and I do believe he was really trying at the time which makes it worse.”

For more information about Anyone’s Child, click here.