Mother and son want to raise awareness of alcoholism after death of loved one

A family is hoping to raise awareness of alcoholism amoung young people after losing a loved one.
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Mother and son Sally and Henry Maybury have been travelling the UK visiting schools, prisons and rehabs when Covid struck and their work completely stopped.

Sally and Henry launched video ‘Wish You Could Have Stayed’, a documentary style educational video it focuses on the sad story of Tom, Sally’s son and Henry’s eldest brother who died at 29 years after gradually slipping deeper and deeper into alcoholism.

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Tom’s mother Sally said: “The video about our true story really hits home hard as it has real life true experiences that make you think about the potential dangers of alcohol.

“Our purpose is to raise awareness of mental health and addiction, highlight the undeniable potential dangers of alcohol and remove the stigma associated with addiction.”

The film has been produced by the internationally renowned Casual Films and Sally and Henry are now planning to get the video into as many schools as possible across the country with the hope of getting it on the national curriculum.

Henry, who studied in Chichester, said: “Unfortunately there is a negative stereotype for addicts, but this was not like Tom at all.

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“He had so much going for him so we wanted to get the message out to people that this is something that can happen to anybody from any background. ‘Wish You Could Have Stayed’ tells the story of someone who had so much potential but who simply lost their way in life and began to use alcohol as a coping mechanism.”

Filming the documentaryFilming the documentary
Filming the documentary

The documentary has already been put forward for screening at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.

Henry said: “We are particularly keen to target schools, young people from about 12 to 18 and universities. These are among the most impressionable and at great potential risk from life and peer pressures.

“I am so happy with the end product of the documentary style educational video. It’s great to see that my songs ‘Lost Days’ and ‘Every Night and Day’ are part of this project to raise awareness and more importantly to connect with anyone who may be struggling with addiction and mental health. It’s essential that we help them and assist them to understand that they are not alone.”

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Henry and Sally want to get this video into as many schools in the UK as possible and are in talks with MPs and Councils to see if they can help with this, hopefully getting it onto the curriculum.

Sally said “It’s important for people to realise that they are not alone, that there is help available and they must talk about their situation to let their feelings out, whether they live in the environment of addiction or are an addict themselves. It has been a difficult and really emotional project with tears of sadness but also tears of joy and laughter along the way but we were determined to work through our tears to turn Tom’s tragedy into a force for positive change.”

The video is available for free and can be accessed by visiting henrymaybury.com all Henry and Sally ask for in return from schools, universities and professional workplaces etc is to please hold a charity event to raise money for the Lost Days Charitable Trust.

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