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Rachel Keogh

Address: Dublin

Rachel Keogh was 11 when she first started smoking and drinking to fit in with the other kids in her area. Growing up in Ballymun in the 90s, illegal drugs surrounded young Rachael, and before long she was smoking hash, taking pills and not going to school. Heroin quickly followed – with Rachael smoking it first and then injecting at the age of 15. She became chronically addicted to the drug and her life after this continued to spiral: constant drug use, jailed on shoplifting charges. This period of Rachael’s life is well-known by anyone who was reading the papers or watching the news in the mid-2000s. At her wits’ end in July 2006, Rachael’s mother – who had done everything she could to help her daughter – contacted the media lamenting how her daughter couldn’t get the help she needed to combat her addiction. It was at this time that images emerged of Rachael’s arms – ravaged by years of injecting. Doctors informed her that her arms would have to be amputated if she didn’t stop using heroin. The pictures of Rachael caught national attention. Soon after their publication, a hard-hitting Sky News documentary – My Heroin Hell: Rachael’s Story – followed the 26-year-old as she battled her addiction and sought treatment. It was like a last-ditch attempt to try and get help, you know? And in doing that, I didn’t get in to treatment any quicker but I got a phenomenal response from the public. Reflecting on a decade Rachael has been off drugs now for well over a decade. Following the media focus on her and her addiction, she eventually got treatment in a detox unit before undergoing three months of rehabilitation.

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