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Former drug addict hopes to spend the next Father’s Day with his daughter
By Tiana Cole
After being away from his daughter for 15 years due to his drug addiction, the now 41-year-old Nick Boodhoo is hopeful that he will get the opportunity to spend Father’s Day with his daughter next year.
Boodhoo, who was enrolled in the Phoenix Recovery Project, proudly stated that he is now 27 months “clean” from his addictions, and shared that he is now the owner of a car which he works daily in order to secure an honest earning.
Boohoo said that every day he regrets not being around to be a father to his daughter.
“Right now my daughter is my number one priority and I am working on mending our broken relationship. I am trying my best; hopefully by next year I will get the opportunity to spend my first father’s day with my daughter who is now twenty-years-old. All I have is a photo of my daughter that I look at every day.’’
Boodhoo said that he has spent the last five years trying to explain to his daughter the reasons why he was not around to provide for her, but their relationship is still rocky.
“Ever since I started to get my life in order I reached out to her, she was fifteen at that time and she did not really want to talk to me, but I am not giving up, because she is twenty years old now and I am seeing progress with her. I am taking it step by step; day by day. Every day I am getting better and round this time next year, I’m hoping that the two of us can spend father’s day together as a family.”
Nick Boodhoo
Boodhoo said he started smoking cigarettes and marijuana at the age of 17 when he was in high school, but gravitated to cocaine, and before he knew it he was an addict.
“I stared out smoking three packs of cigarette a day, then I moved over to marijuana, which give me the urge to try alcohol, and as time progressed I started smoking cocaine,” Boodhoo recalled.
“I went from a grade A student to a grade Z, my life went downhill. Spending eight hours in school was very hard, because I would be thinking about my cigarettes and other stuff.”
Boodhoo recalls dropping out of school to put his all into his new habits which made him live on the streets for 15 years after he left school.
After years of begging, stealing and robbing persons to get money, it all came to an abrupt end when the law caught up with him one evening following one of his transgressions. The police found him fast asleep on the pavement and arrested him. He was sentenced to six years in jail.
Boodhoo said that when he came out of prison he was “more dangerous” and the reason for that was because at that time the prison had no in-house rehabilitation programme for the inmates, and he felt desperate.
However, soon after his release, he enrolled in the Phoenix Project which is run by a recovering addict, Mr. Clarence Young, who he said gave him the opportunity to redeem himself through a 12-step programme.
After successfully completing his treatment at the institution, Boodhoo “re-entered society”. He now volunteers in his spare time with Express Guyana.
He stated that the Express Guyana and the Phoenix Programme gave him a new outlook.
“Being part of the Express Guyana gave me the opportunity to talk to youths about drug and alcohol abuse and drug prevention.
Boodhoo is pleading with the government to place more emphasis on drug addiction.
Today he lives a very simple life, while encouraging youths to stay focused and not give in to peer pressure.
Boodhoo said in a few years’ time he sees himself being a well-known advocate, who will be touching lives, and he declared his project’s motto will be ”say no to drugs yes to life.”
“I live in an environment where people are constantly smoking, but that does not bother me, because I am not going back to that lifestyle.”
He says he lives by a motto, “I did whatever it took to get high, but now I have to do whatever it takes to stay sober.”
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