I am glad a newspaper like the Mail is shining a torch on Hartlepool and other areas about the serious alcohol binge-drinking culture (Mail, June 16).

An organisation called Balance has been set up.

Any organisation that can bring awareness to alcohol problems in this area, any area, is for the good.

As an ex-alcoholic for 30 years, also addicted to life-threatening substances, a life of confusion, poverty, illness and all that being an alcoholic entails, the good news is that there is a way out. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Thirteen years ago I became a Christian and my life changed. Yes, there is a Jesus Christ who can set you free.

I worked the streets of Hartlepool seven years with an organisation called The Beacon and sent many alcoholics and drug addicts to detox and rehab centres all over Great Britain. I still do.

Many were set free, some alcoholics will never change if they don't want to.

I've been to four funerals recently. There will be hundreds more alcoholics.

I've got a team who help me, four ex-drug addicts and four ex-alcoholics.

People with addictions, it does not have to be that way.

We are tasting the rotten fruit of a society that has rejected God.

Growing violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, widespread promiscuity, the rampant spread of sexually transmitted diseases, wrecked families, vast numbers of children in desperate need are all indicative of the price we are paying for wrong relationships, moral decline, and a Godless society devoted to the idol of 'self'.

I hope to meet the organisation, Balance. I believe we can bounce some good stuff off each other.

Will Semple,
Layburn Place,
Peterlee.

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