Sailing therapy for addicts

Recovering drug addicts in Cornwall are finding the therapy of the sea is helping them beat their addiction.

A project called Sailaday has been given £3,500 from the National Lottery Millennium Fund.

The project has the backing of the Drug Action Team for Cornwall which brings together health and local authority officials in the fight against drugs.

Addicts get the chance to spend a day sailing a 30ft Falmouth-based yacht around the harbour.

Richard Hall, the St Ives-based psychotherapist who runs the Sailaday project, is also a trained yachtsman.

He said it may seem like the clients were having a jolly, but it went far deeper.

Social skills

He said: "They might be finding it difficult to communicate or difficult to work in a team or generally finding it difficult to enjoy themselves without the use of drugs or without some sort of anxiety.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to give them a day out and learn a bit of a skill."

And it is not all about lying back and enjoying the ride. Bruce has just celebrated his first year of being clean from alcohol and heroin addiction.

He said the project had encouraged him to learn new social skills.

He said: "It's extremely relaxing. Addiction takes away from us the ability to enjoy ourselves and this helps me to enjoy some of the simple pleasures in life again."

The money will be spent on kick-starting the project and making it available to more people.