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'I don't want my son to have died in vain'

23/12/2002

A heartbroken mum has paid a moving tribute to her son who battled bravely to beat heroin, but died following an overdose of the killer drug.

Devastated Christine McBrier was 'gutted' when she heard the body of her 29-year-old son Terence Finnigan had been found slumped against a lamppost in a Manchester Street with a used syringe by his side.

Through the harrowing years of his addiction, Christine pleaded with Terence to quit the drug, and this year thought his cravings were finally beaten after she nursed him through five painful weeks of 'cold turkey'.

Now she is urging parents struggling to cope with drug addicted children not to let her son's death be in vain. She says they should never give up on their loved ones and never let them out of sight.

Christine, of Isaac Close, Ordsall told The Advertiser; "People don't like heroin addicts because of the bad things they do, but all the time he was addicted I never stopped loving him - I couldn't, he was my son."

Before his drug problem began, Terence - 'Tex' to his family and friends - was popular with the other kids at West Liverpool Street Junior School and Clarendon Secondary High School.

Christine fondly remembered: "He was the typical class clown. Last Christmas he had the family in stitches with his Noel Gallagher impression - it was just his typical sense of humour."

In 1993 Terence moved into an Ordsall house with his girlfriend, Sharon and was thrilled when their son Jack was born a year later.

But while living there Terence began taking heroin. Christine said: "He changed. He wasn't bothered what he looked like and he wasn't as bright. He was losing his sparkle. He had become so serious because he was doing it."

The situation took a turn for the worse when Sharon left after a row, taking Jack with her. Terence was devastated and moved to Rochdale where he stayed in hostels and the flats of anyone that would have him.

Christine explained: "I think he went there because he didn't want to be here doing things that he knew I wouldn't approve of. He never brought any trouble he was mixed up in to my door."

During six years of addiction, Terence, once a strapping lad, became a shadow of his former self - at one point weighing just nine stone. Christine's only peace of mind came when he was in prison for petty theft offences.

But it was when Terence arrived blood-soaked on his mum's doorstep in September 2001 after being found battered on a Rochdale street that things reached a turning point.

Christine said: "It was the first time he had ever asked me for help. He said, 'Mum I want you to help me stop taking it. I can't do this anymore. I can't take these drugs anymore. I can't live like this anymore'."

Terence moved in with his mum and decide to go 'cold turkey' to come off the drug. For five weeks Christine slept on the floor under a duvet while Terence used her bed, writhing in agony as the opiates left his system.

Christine said: "I have had three children but I can't imagine the pain that he went through. It was hell. I knew he was hurting but I couldn't help him."

Finally Terence began to regain his strength and as he picked up the pieces of his shattered life, contacted a girl, Tracey Carr.

Christine said: "She's a lovely quiet girl and I know she was keeping an eye on Tex to make sure he stayed off heroin. I saw him more over the next six and a half months than I had seen him for years, it was like he was getting back to his normal self."

But last July Terence disappeared after an argument with his girlfriend.

A few days later he was found dead.

Christine said: "I just wish he had come to me and said that he was worried he was going to try it again.

"I don't want him to have died in vain, I want parents who are going through what I did to hang in there, never give up on their kids and do anything it takes.

"I have gone through the ultimate pain, I have buried one of my children and no matter how much time passes that will never go away."