Tina's Haven: Photo exhibition launched by women recovering from addiction
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A group of recovering addicts have put together an exhibition of photographs as part of a help group set up in memory of mother Tina Robson.
The nature-based photos have been taken by women supported by Tina's Haven during the last year.
Pete Parkin, a former addict, said: "We do like photography, video, forest bathing, all sorts, volunteering work. It distracts our minds from thinking about addictions... And also we’re working in memory of other addicts so that helps also".
Tina's Haven was set up in memory of Ms Robson, who died at supported accommodation in Stockton in 2020.
Having lived with the impact of a childhood trauma, she fell into addiction for many years.
Her mother, Dr Sue Robson, became the guardian of her child while she tried to get support.
Following her death aged just 35-years-old, her mum became determined to support other women in recovery.
She told ITV News Tyne Tees: "Throughout her life, agencies always said we can’t work with her because she doesn’t engage and when she died the coroner said the same thing, that agencies are there but people have to want to be worked with. Tina didn't engage.
"I just thought I’m going to prove that you can create services where women are at the centre of them and if you create those services with women at the centre then they will engage with them and so that is what we did."
"This exhibition is called ‘My story isn’t over’ and it’s saying to the system that Tina’s story isn’t over. We’re not going to go away and Tina’s Haven is going to make a difference. I’m determined it will."
All the women who attend Tina's Haven are in recovery and supported by Addictions North East. Some are estranged from their children, but are able to talk to women who were once in their shoes.
Kirsty Cartledge is now a welfare officer at Addictions North East, but had previously been an addict herself, which resulted in her losing contact with her children for a period of time.
She said: "If we didn’t have other women, like the women in there who suffer from the same thing as me, to me I would be dead. My children wouldn’t have a mam.
"Today I have got my kids back full-time and my life is amazing compared to what it was. And watching these women come in, some off the streets, some out of hostels, they’ve had nothing and been broken, it’s beautiful to watch them be able to grow in confidence, self esteem, worth, their own worth."
Through the photography, arts and crafts, the women are able to improve their mental health, get structure in their lives, but it also allows them to face some of the traumas of the past.
Sheelagh Fraser, a recovering addict with adult children, said: "I’ve done different things with the art and things as well. We’ve also done a project on own my own life, which was around domestic abuse, which for me put a lot of things at peace and I was able to work through some of the experiences that I’ve had in the past."
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