00:00This is Jamie Taylor. After battling his own addiction with alcohol, he set up a running
00:07club in Herne Bay to support others whose lives may have been affected by addiction.
00:13For Jamie, running has been instrumental in his recovery.
00:17So I got sober about seven and a half years ago and running for me was a huge part of
00:21that journey. So when I first got sober I could barely run for ten minutes, but it was
00:28something that I persevered with that had been part of my life previously. And quite frankly,
00:32I moved my obsession with alcohol over to a obsession with running and the first thing
00:38that running did was really to calm me down and to focus my mind into another area.
00:41In 2021, approximately three percent of all deaths in Kent were alcohol-related, two-thirds
00:49of which were related to alcohol misuse. Jamie hopes his running group will help to bring
00:55people struggling together. People take up running for all sorts of different reasons,
01:00but for those who are struggling with addiction, why is exercise such a great way to combat it?
01:06We see that people that exercise live longer, they're healthier, they are happier. So I think
01:12in all of those ways it is naturally giving people some of what they're looking for in their addiction.
01:19The running group is a brilliant idea because what you've got there is the fellowship,
01:22you've got the community. Perhaps if you don't turn up someone might call you and go,
01:26oh are you coming tonight? And then it's harder to slip back into drinking because you've got people
01:31that are kind of missing you or looking out for you. This was Craig Rouse's first week at the group
01:37and he said for him community is what running is all about. Being a recovering alcoholic myself,
01:43this ticks all my boxes. I'm addicted to running as well. It's all my mental health therapy that I need
01:49to get through. I've also got a diagnosis of all the HD as well, so running calls my mind. So
01:55it's
01:56nice to have an initiative near to me which I can take part in. Just getting people talking is helping
02:01people move forward. A lot of healing gets done when you're talking about issues that affect you.
02:07And I've always found that being out in nature, being by the seaside, being out running, being out
02:12with people gets people talking. This is only the beginning for running addicts as Jamie hopes to
02:18expand the reach of the group across the county and to bring more people struggling with addiction
02:24together. Justine Larta for KMTV in Herne Bay.
02:28I love you so much.
