A Kingscourt woman for up on 30 years has been supporting families traumatised by addiction alongside her sister.
Founder and voluntary Family Support Coordinator, Gwen McKenna says addiction impacts entire families, not just the individuals.
The Family Addiction Support Network (FASN) supports families right across the region and the North East
The FASN operates across Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. Gwen says she started out supporting families because in the 1990s there was no services available locally to help these families.
She said if you have an individual who is addicted to drugs, you will have on average 6 others in the family impacted.
Gwen says there is a stigma surrounding families of people who are using drugs. Meanwhile, Gwen says she is delighted to have FASN open a location in Monaghan Town from next week also.
She also highlighted a special event planned for this Sunday morning in Shercock that will see her and others take on 5kms to raise much needed funds. Ronan Gargan sat down with Gwen to find out more.