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Jobless and addicted to drink and drugs Jamie Davies from Strood found his rehab through running - now clean he is running for charity

00:00, 18 April 2015

When Lindsay Davies could no longer cope with her husband’s drink and drugs addiction she kicked out the father of her two sons out of their home in Strood.

Jamie Davies, 31, had nowhere to go and was out on the street without a job, so went back to his mother in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Having been in and out of hospital and attending rehab clinics, it was his mother Elizabeth Davies, 50, who put her son on the road to recovery.

Jamie Davies, of Collis Street, Strood, had mental health issues and is running a 10k race in May for charity Mind. Pictured with his wife Lindsay.
Jamie Davies, of Collis Street, Strood, had mental health issues and is running a 10k race in May for charity Mind. Pictured with his wife Lindsay.

By pounding the streets with Mrs Davies, Jamie’s life started to turn round and he has been “clean” now for nine weeks.

Jamie is back with Lindsay and their two sons, Callum, 12, and Harry, nine, has got new job as a scaffolder and feels healthier and physically better than ever.

“My mum was hard on me and I realised what I could lose if I didn’t do something. I have never run before, but suddenly my life changed. I started to eat properly, can now sleep without having nightmares.” - Jamie

So much so that he is taking part in a 10km run for the mental health charity MIND which has helped him overcome his problems.

Jamie, of Collis Street, started smoking cannabis when he was growing up in Lancashire and progressed to harder drugs, including crack cocaine after meeting his real dad for the first time two years ago. The introduction to his blood father had a devastating effect on his mental state and he received medication for depression.

He overdosed twice and started drinking heavily, often not bothering to get up to go to work.

Lindsay. 30, a barmaid at the Weston Arms in Strood, who met Jamie when they worked at Allhallows Holiday Camp when they were teenagers, could not take any more.

She said: “I used to come home and dread to think what I would find. I kept trying to hide it from the boys, but it was tearing us apart as a family.

Jamie said: “My mum was hard on me and I realised what I could lose if I didn’t do something. I have never run before, but suddenly my life changed. I started to eat properly, can now sleep without having nightmares.”

Jamie Davies, of Collis Street, Strood, had mental health issues and is running a 10k race in May for charity Mind
Jamie Davies, of Collis Street, Strood, had mental health issues and is running a 10k race in May for charity Mind

Lindsay said: “I am so proud of him. He is an inspiration to others. We are happier than ever.”

She added that his new lifestyle had rubbed off on the rest of them, saying: “I have never run before, but now I am Jamie’s running partner and the boys have taken up boxing instead of with playing with computers all the time.”

Jamie is running in the BUPA 10km in London on Monday May 25. To donate go to his justgiving page, https://www.justgiving.com/Jamie-Davies4

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