"It helped save my life"

Charity hosts pop-up event to promote lifesaving overdose reversal spray

The Manx addiction charity Motiv8 has been speaking to shoppers on Strand Street today (4 September) about the lifesaving drug Naloxone.

A nasal spray, it can help reverse the effects of an overdose and provide a critical window for medical intervention. 

Mark and Jason, support workers with the charity, know first-hand how effective it can be, both having experienced accidental overdoses.

Mark says: "Naloxone is an opioid reversal drug. It's actually saved my life in the past, this stuff. 

"So, I'm big on promoting it and getting it out in the community to help stop overdoses happening to the Manx community and just making people aware of it."

Naloxone, Mark says, is 'very easy to administer and takes about 10 minutes to learn how to use it'.

He adds: "What happens is, when we take opioid drugs, they sit on the opioid receptors in our body. What Naloxone will do is it will come along and knock those drugs off only temporarily.

"However, that temporary 20 minute, 30 minute gap that it creates gives us time to get an ambulance involved and get that medical intervention."

Like Mark, Jason says he wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Naloxone.

And he says: "On the other side of that, I've seen where Naloxone wasn't available and lost friends. 

"If it was around, they'd be here today living their lives."

Listen to Mark and Jason's interview with Manx Radio below:

Today's Strand Street pop-up event was a way for Motiv8 to mark International Overdose Awareness Day and National Recovery Month.

In the centre of the charity's display was a 'Tree of Hope' where members of the public wrote anonymous messages of hope, encouragement or support.

Motiv8 says the completed display will 'bring together messages from across the Island for anyone affected by dependency or simply in need of a reminder that they are not alone'.