“I’m tackling this stigma that once an addict, always an addict. I’m living proof that’s not true.”
These are the words of 35-year-old Louise Fairweather, who has managed to turn her life around thanks to a police raid and the help of Street Soccer Scotland.
At the age of 14, Louise was already taking ecstasy at the weekend.
At 15, she was sneaking into underage to clubs and being exposed to the drug at house parties.
And the Forfar native would smoke cannabis on Sundays to help ease the come down.
“The drugs and going out with my friends at the weekend was more important,” Louise recalled.
“It was the usual, saying to my parents: ‘I’m staying at my friend’s’.
“I had the loving support of my family, it was drummed into me, drugs were a big ‘no-no’.
“But unfortunately, I just went down that path like my peers.
“It was like it was accepted back then when I started doing it. It was like a weekend thing.”
When her much older boyfriend told her he had “a different cannabis” for her to try, she agreed.
Fighting a ten-year heroin addiction
What she did not know was it was actually heroin.
“Heroin-addict, it can’t be a weekend thing,” she said.
“Before you know it, you’re addicted.”
She continued: “I just started to lose everything: my job, my house, my car, my money.
“Everything started to go and before I knew it, I was stuck in this addiction.
“It only took a matter of about four weeks – I was clutched.”
As heroin took over her life, Louise was kicked out of her family home.
“Mum and Dad – they’re like best friends to me,” Louise said.
“But they just couldn’t live with the lifestyle.”
She added: “I always remember heroin got called the devil’s dust, it’s like fairy dust but it’s evil.
“That little bit of powder. You would do anything for that little bit of powder.
“You don’t know how quickly it takes a hold of you until you’ve got no money and you’ve got none of the drugs and the pain is that bad.
“I was too ashamed to ask for support.”
Support of her family
Despite being in the claws of addiction for ten years, Louise was fortunate enough to still have the love and support of her family.
She said their support was what helped her quit her heroin addiction.
“I still remember the day I walked in with a bag of heroin in my hand,” she recalled.
“I started shouting, ‘I need to put it down the sink, I’ve had enough’.
“It was withdrawals, and I was on the way to take it, and something just clicked that I can’t do this and the first place I went to was mum and dad’s.”
But after her dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour and her mum had a heart attack shortly afterwards, Louise turned back to drugs to numb the pain she was feeling.
“I knew I would never take heroin again,” she said. “It was Valium I’d taken.”
Surprisingly, a police raid and the risk of jail time was the wake up call Louise needed.
Instead of being sentenced to custodial time, she was given a diversion order.
A diversion order is when someone is referred to a treatment programme, as opposed to prison.
Turning her life around
Through this, she met her mentor Sarah.
Louise told her about her love of football when she was younger, and Sarah suggested she go along to Street Soccer Scotland.
The non-profit organisation offers a range of support programmes for those on the outskirts of society, through the shared love of football.
Support from her mentor and the team at Street Soccer Scotland has been vital to Louise’s recovery.
Playing football and building her fitness helped her gain confidence.
“When I have a football at my feet, I forget everything,” she said.
“It’s always been like that with me.
“Fitting back into society was probably one of the worst things.
“Because you wonder where do I fit in? I was a drug-addict so should I still behave like one even though I’m not doing it?”
When Louise stopped taking drugs, she struggled to understand why her parents were proud of her.
She felt that she’d done something wrong so there was nothing to be proud of by “fixing” what she’d done.
By having a strong support system, she was able to realise that beating her heroin addiction was an achievement.
This allowed her to overcome feeling shame and embarrassment of her addiction and move forward with her life.
“I was the only one out of a massive heap of us addicted that has been able to recover,” Louise said.
“I have more associated friends in the graveyard than I do in the streets now.
“So, when I’m going up to the graveyard now it takes quite a while because you’re going to see everyone.”
Realising what she’d just said she started to cry.
“I’d never thought of it like that. It’s sad, isn’t it?”
Helping others to succeed
Now, Louise is an important part of the Dundee Street Soccer team.
Volunteering at the centre, she also works as a peer mentor for Tayside Council on Alcohol.
She regularly brings her mentees along to sessions at the centre, helping them find the support that she was lucky enough to receive.
“If I can save one addicted person and help them think ‘if she can do it, I can do it, it can be done’, then I’ll shout it from the rooftops for the rest of my life.”
“They saved my life,” Louise added. “The guys have a special place in my heart, I could never repay them.”
Street Soccer Scotland are the Homeless World Cup’s partner in Scotland.
They are hoping to bring both women’s and men’s teams to the Homeless World Cup in New York in September 2022.
