Recovering alcoholic joins forces with Bargain Booze
Unique awareness charity is launched in town
RECOVERING alcoholic Stuart Hardy-Taylor and Shelthorpe’s Bargain Booze have set up a unique charity organisation with a scheme designed to educate shopkeepers on alcoholism, the effects it has on society, and to help those struggling with addiction.
Stuart, works as a recovery outreach worker for The Carpenter’s Arms.
Now four years sober, he has developed the charity organisation with the aim of raising awareness of alcoholism in the area. He told the Echo: “After spending 12 months with the Carpenter’s Arms, we set up recovery week in Loughborough, an event to raise awareness.”
The recovery week was promoted online, including a video on Facebook.
And Sukh “Scott” Sihra who runs Bargain Booze near where Stuart lived and one of his regular shops for buying alcohol, saw the video on Facebook.
We are working together with other charities and shops for the scheme
STUART said he was walking past Bargain Booze one day and Scott came running out and started to apologise for not recognising he had a problem.
But Stuart’s take on the situation is that he doesn’t blame Scott for serving him alcohol over the years.
He admits that during his addiction he was quite devious and found it easy to fool shops into selling him alcohol, even when he was drunk.
“When Scott apologised to me, I had to tell him it wasn’t his fault. If I wasn’t buying from him it would be somewhere else.
“Later that week, I was on the bus and I had a vision come to me from God.”
The pair created AWARE, Alcohol Watch Aiding Recovery Education, a scheme designed to educate shopkeepers on alcoholism and how it effects those who are addicted.
Scott from Bargain Booze said: “For some time I had been thinking that we should have more training in dealing with people who have an addiction issue as we are the frontline to seeing the problem.
“However, we have no support or links to those who can help. Then I saw a video on Facebook of Stuart telling his story about how he was addicted to alcohol, how it had turned his life upside down but also how he had since got over it and changed his life for the better.
“We take our responsibilities very seriously at Bargain Booze, and I sometimes think that our name alone (Bargain Booze) misleads some people to think that we are not responsible retailers.
“We absolutely do our best to make sure we do not serve someone who is drunk, someone who is underage or somebody attempting to buy for a minor.
“In fact, we do our best to help where we can. We listen to our customers’ woes, we try to guide and educate those who misuse alcohol.
“We do not want to run a business where we are harming people, we strongly endorse drinking sensibly and in moderation.
“So how come I felt that I had let Stuart down after knowing we normally try to help? How did he slip through the net?
“Soon after, I managed to get hold of Stuart and have a good conversation about his journey and my desire to be more useful in the future where we can identify if people are struggling with addiction, and what to do about it.
“According to charities who deal with addiction, it is not so simple as to just stop serving those addicted as this could lead to a much worse situation for them.
“I was proud to hear that Stuart was using his experience to help others trying to get over their addictions, and from what I gather he has helped improve many people’s lives up to date!
“We continued to meet and discuss ideas over the next few months and we finally came up with the AWARE initiative.”
The take up of AWARE by local shops has been a surprise to Stuart.
“I visited every off-licence and shop in town that sells alcohol and explained the idea of having these cards on the counter giving details of all the local services and charities that help with addiction.
“It was mad how many of the shopkeepers were willing to talk about it. I’d say 90 per cent of the shops were willing to take part.
“Ultimately it is our responsibility as an adult to deal with our drinking.
“All AWARE is designed to do is educate shopkeepers and those that suffer on the problem and perhaps make them think a little when serving people and advertising alcohol.”
And Scott believes that aware gives shopkeepers some aid in helping those who are suffering.
If you would like to find out more about AWARE or if you are a shop keeping willing to take part in the scheme please contact Stuart at AWARErecovery@gmail.com