On Saturday, I posted the following words on my Facebook page: ‘Happy St. David’s Day to my Welsh family all my good friends in Wales. I miss you all. Have a wonderful day.’
I very quickly had a reply from Mark Saunders, someone who used to be a Wired In volunteer all those years ago. I haven’t seen Mark, who is from Caerphilly in South Wales, in about 17 years. I was so excited, as I always felt very close to him. Mark was the subject of Wired In’s first ever film (see below).
I thought I’d take this opportunity and dig into Chapters I have written about My Journey: From Brain Chemicals to Human Connection and write something about Mark.
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‘In 2005, Lucie James—a former outstanding Swansea University Psychology student who was my right-hand person at Wired In for a long period—and a talented filmmaker friend of hers from Penarth, Jonathan Kerr-Smith, made a 10-minute film, Mark’s Recovery Story. [The film is also on YouTube in three separate short films. Check out the wirednrecovery channel.]
Mark was a Wired In volunteer and former heroin addict. We had met him through Angela Brinkworth, a drama therapist who ran an organisation called Make a Change that worked with people who had a substance use problem and had committed criminal offences. These young people gave something back to the community by sharing their knowledge and experience of drug addiction through Forum Theatre to schools, youth groups, young offender groups, and to inmates in a prison.
Mark’s film was first shown publicly at a Make a Change conference on empowerment in Newport in December 2005, where I gave a talk on ‘Empowering Others’. We decided that Mark’s Story should be the first of a series of Wired In film stories. When the National Treatment Agency (NTA), the government agency in charge of the mainstream addiction treatment system, later asked for submissions for funding of new projects, I submitted an application from our Wired International charity for this project. Sadly, the proposal was rejected. As I was to learn, the NTA wasn’t interested in recovery and in funding non-institutional projects.
Forum Theatre, developed by Augusto Boal in Brazil, often deals with social justice issues, and involves spectators influencing and engaging with the performance as both spectators and actors, termed ‘spect-actors’, with the power to stop and change the performance.
I invited Mark to create a piece of Forum Theatre for the students attending my Clinical Masters course on addiction that focused on the dilemmas faced by people recovering from heroin addiction. The class was a huge success, and Mark was really touched by the positive reception and feedback he received from the students. He really gained a powerful sense of agency! Mind you, I’m not sure that some of the staff in my department would have appreciated a former heroin addict taking a class! I loved it!!’ Chapter 15: Wired In Ups and Downs, Part 2
‘Lucie was bringing together a group of people in South Wales who were recovering from drug and alcohol problems, our first local recovery community. They had regular evening gatherings, where they would hold a recovery group gathering and also enjoy themselves socially. Kevin Manley and Mark Saunders were also real stalwarts of the group.
Over time, participants told their stories, reflected on key issues related to addiction recovery, and discussed their experiences in treatment. They were all proud when Lucie ‘signed them up’ as Wired In volunteers. They wanted their voice of recovery to be heard far and wide.
I was not involved in the regular recovery meetings, as I didn’t want the group to feel restrained in any way by the presence of the ‘Prof’. Besides, this was Lucy’s ‘baby’, ably supported by Kevin and Mark. However, I did participate in the occasional social gathering, like tenpin bowling. And Kevin and Mark used to come over to parties at my house and spend time with my children, who came to love them both….
… In June 2007, Kevin, Mark and I were asked to give a talk about drug overdose at a one-day conference in Swansea organised by Ifor Glyn of the treatment service Swansea Drugs Project (SAND). Lucie and I were so proud of the professional and inspiring talks given by the two young men. I could see their talks had really impacted emotionally on members of the audience.’ Chapter 17: Wired In’s Cardiff Recovery Community
Mark Saunders was such a great asset to our grassroots initiative Wired In. He was an amazing peer supporter, an example of what could achieved, and how problems could be overcome, to those who were struggling on the recovery journey. He inspired my undergraduate students who loved the addiction recovery field—some did excellent research projects with our Wired In Team. He taught me a great deal about the nature of heroin addiction and recovery from this problem.
Thank you Mark for all you did for Wired In and the addiction recovery field. And for your great friendship. We had some wonderful times, didn’t we? Let’s catch up on FaceTime or Zoom soon!
Mark’s Recovery Story
Mark remains in long-term recovery. In the photo below, Mark is third from left standing, in-between Lucie James and I. The bottom row comprised from left, Kevin Manley, Chris Hobbs and Pavel Nepustil. Pavel was an addiction researcher and worker, who was visiting the Wired In team from the Czech Republic in September 2007.
