Dave Smith dealt with his son’s drugs death by channelling his energy and drive into helping others. Just before Ryan died, he gave his dad a picture he had drawn of a rising sun which brought the hope of a new day. Dave tells JANE LOUGHRAN why the organisation is his penance - but the Rising Sun Trust is also a salvation for many others . . .

Last updated 19:39, Thursday, 10 April 2008

EVERY morning for the last nine years, Dave Smith has woken up in a rash of guilt about the death of his son Ryan.

What if he had done more to help him? If only he had spotted the signs of Ryan’s drugs habit earlier . . . the same thoughts go over and over in his mind.

“It was my responsibility to keep all of my children safe. I will never get over what happened to Ryan. I just get up and wear a mask,’’ says Dave.

He describes his work at Workington’s Rising Sun Trust as a penance. He set up the West Cumbrian drug and alcohol charity a couple of months after Ryan died in a Liverpool bail hostel aged just 18.

Dave started the charity in a spare room of his house in Greysouthen as a response the number of parents who rang him asking for help and advice in the immediate aftermath of Ryan’s death.

Today the Rising Sun is a 24 hour, seven day a week confidential telephone service that offers advice, support and help to drug users and their families. It also has a drop-in centre in Fisher Street, Workington and an outreach centre operating two days a week in Maryport.

The four members of staff and 11 volunteers handled about 3,500 calls last year as well as speaking to thousands of children in schools.

The organisation has no official funding and is completely dependent on grants and donations; Dave sometimes works through the night sending off applications for grants to fund the organisation, which costs more than £100,000 a year to run.

Unfortunately, the Rising Sun is needed more each year rather than less; according to Dave, drug and alcohol problems in West Cumbria are increasing each year.

“There is a steady social decline. Discipline is harder to enforce with young people and too many of them think being in trouble is a badge of honour. Our society has torn down structures and not replaced them. At the same time, materialism is rampant.

“We need to educate younger and younger children about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse,’’ says Dave, who works every day at the trust as well as working as Fishery Manager on the Cockermouth Estate.

Ryan was just 12 years old when he started smoking cannabis. The second of Dave’s four children, he puzzles over what made Ryan the only one who was susceptible to drugs; there was no obvious reason.

Dave refuses to take the easy line by blaming a bad crowd, pointing out that Ryan might have been regarded by other parents as the rotten egg.

“I was clueless about drugs and didn’t recognise the signals. When Ryan became withdrawn and moody, I put it down to puberty and adolescence. I suppose part of me simply didn’t believe that my son would turn to drugs.

“By the time I realised what was going on, Ryan had moved right up the drugs ladder and it was impossible to pull him back down.

The family did their utmost to get through to Ryan but failed dismally. “Ryan just didn’t see anything wrong in the way he was drifting. To him, the drug world became normal.

“By the time he was 18 and injecting heroin, he did see the problem but it was all too late.’’

Dave was desperate for help but didn’t know where to turn. “In the mid-1990s, there were few services available for help. I couldn’t find any support for our family and precious little for Ryan himself.”

Ryan turned to crime to support his habit. But just before he died, his family had begun to hope that he was turning the corner. Ryan’s death was a massive shock.

Dave says: “It was numbing. We had spent six years worrying about him virtually living on the streets and suddenly he died when there was a glimmer of hope.’’

Dave dealt with Ryan’s death by channelling his energy into helping others.

Just before Ryan died, he gave his dad a picture he had drawn of a rising sun.

Dave might call the organisation his penance but the Rising Sun is a salvation for others as well as himself.

Drug users rarely become entirely free of their problems; recovery is not a word that Dave is easy with. “For some people, recovery means just being able to get up in the mornings.

“We do have some people that might be called success stories. Just recently, we have been involved with a young couple who now have a baby; they were both heavy drug users but now appear to be clean. I just hope they manage to stay that way because addictions are with you forever,’’ he says.

Dave is never judgemental, just realistic. He never condemns anyone with drink or drug problems.

“They are usually good people who have made bad choices. I have made a lot of friends through this work.

“When I set out, I thought that I might be able to save the world but I realised quickly that every family is in a slightly different situation and every drug user has a slightly different story.

“The Rising Sun tries to treat everyone individually and offers to signpost help and support at the pace of those who need it.’’

Dave might not manage to save the world but he has set up a lifeline for the desperate and the despairing.

The Rising Sun Trust has recently taken part in an Active Change Foundation conference in Kendal, which brought together groups of young Muslims and Christians from inner city London to examine the way drugs are affecting their cultures.

Dave said: “The Rising Sun gave a presentation on the problems drugs are causing in country areas like Cumbria but it was a real eye-opener for many of us to learn about how they are used to radicalise young Muslims.’’