Moms Stop The Harm remember children who died from overdoses with black balloons

Local mothers gathered together Sunday in Kelowna holding pictures of sons who died from drug overdoses and waving black balloons representing the lives lost.

Event organizer and Moms Stop The Harm member, Helen Jennens, says the balloons are like sending a kiss to heaven. She hopes the event will remind people how special these lives were.

“We know if it doesn’t affect you, you probably don’t care but it’s going to affect someone close to you in your family. People don’t talk about it because of the shame and stigma but we are trying to break that.”

Jennens joins other mothers who have lost their sons to a drug overdose. Jennens two sons, Jason and Tyler, died from drug overdoses.

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According to the B.C. Coroners Service, the toxic drug supply claimed the lives of 2,224 people in 2021. The last two months of 2021 had the largest number of illicit drug deaths ever recorded in the province, with 210 deaths in November and an additional 215 in December.

“We need to make people aware, addiction does not discriminate. This could take anyone’s child. It’s taken our children and it can take yours too,” adds Jennens.

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David Masmarti also attended the event. He is a recovering addict reminding people struggling with addiction that there is hope.

“Get out there to someone you can trust, anybody, but believe in yourself … It happens to everybody of all walks of life.”