A NEW mentoring service is aiming to help those battling drink or drug problems. ANDY RUTHERFORD reports.

BY the age of 16 Bill (not his real name) had represented Wales at athletics, his county at athletics and football - then drugs began to dominate his life.

He spiralled out of control, taking more and stronger drugs, failing at detoxification programmes, until his abuse almost killed him.

Now 33, Bill, from Caldicot, is turning his life around with the help of the Crime Reduction Initiative (CRI) peer mentor service in Newport and Monmouthshire, set up with the Welsh Government to provide aftercare and improved services for people with substance misuse problems.

Since 2009, more than 130 people have been accepted onto the programme, which aims to reintegrate into the community those who are recovered or recovering from alcohol and drug misuse.

People can enter CRI as a beneficiary, if not yet entirely sober or free of drugs, or a peer mentor, if they are further down the recovery path and would like to offer advice and guidance.

For Bill, clean for 31 months, CRI offered a way back after years of addiction that left him weak, malnourished and finally in intensive care, with a severe form of pneumonia.

"At my worst, I was told the next 12 hours were critical to whether I lived or died," he said.

"But that's my past life now. I wasn't an archetypal drug addict, stealing to feed my addiction. I worked for cash in hand on building sites, borrowed money from my family.

"Communities Against Drugs was a massive help early on, and CRI has been fantastic and I've completed the peer mentoring course.

"If I help one person to avoid ending up like me, it will be worth it."

Bill recently ran a workshop for CRI's Welsh drug rehabilitation and alcohol treatment requirement teams, and runs CRI open door clinics. He is also doing an Open University degree.

"I've come a long way but won't be happy until I've got a job and my own place. And I owe my family a lot. They have stood by me."

• CRI is funded by the European Social Fund and works across England and Wales, linking with scores of other organisations. It works with 30,000 people at any one time.