County Durham Expression of Interest to Host the 2015 UK Recovery Walk
Shipyards, coalmines, steel making, fishing, ICI, Northern Rock.
industries that were once part of the North East fabric, long gone.
Companies and
But not forgotten.
Thousands of families across the North East of England from Teesside in the South to
Tyneside in the North have had to suffer incredible hardship as jobs disappeared rapidly
and breadwinners fell upon hard times.
But, the North East is fighting back. Resolute people, chin forward, hard working and
determined, have recovered their pride. New industries have moved into the North East.
The North East is used to brickbats, being knocked down having to rebuild and to rely on
communities to move beyond the difficult times, to find some light at the end of the very
long tunnel of hope.
The people of the North East know what it’s like to suffer and, more importantly, how to
recover.
The North East region is beginning to recover. Industries and a way of life may have
moved on; the communities however, are still there.
And so are the people.
But sadly, not everyone has been part of that recovery. Some have found it difficult to
adapt. Others have felt isolated and left behind. Unemployment and social deprivation
have added to the number of barriers that everyone needs to overcome. Addiction is
threaded through all communities, alcohol and drug misuse is an all too common future
in North East families.
We want recovery to be alive and visible in County Durham
The Recovery Banner is also something that the people of the North East fully understand
along with the symbolic importance of having it blessed at Durham Cathedral. The fact
that people who are in recovery will be walking along with the banner, will be a beacon of
hope and something that will show those who are currently addicted that, yes, you
achieve recovery. It will also show society in general that with help of communities, it
really is possible to recover from addiction, to repair some wrongs and to rejoin the
mainstream of life. The people walking with the banner are proof of that.
The Recovery Walk will be something that the North East will fully and openly support. It
will bring people together; it will be an expression of a desire to help; it will show
solidarity; that if we work together, we can all aim for the common good. It’s not only a
case of safety in numbers, it means that if everyone pulls in the same direction, we will all
benefit. Society as a whole will move forwards.
Durham City is a focus of pilgrimage. This is a spiritual city. Since St.Cuthbert was carried
from Holy Island to Durham in 875AD, people have been going there. Hundreds of
thousands of people, of all faiths, visit Durham City.
Durham City will welcome the Recovery Walk in its own unique way. It won’t be the
same as Manchester, Birmingham, or Brighton, or Cardiff or Glasgow. Yet, in many ways,
it will be exactly the same. Support by local people, local communities and local
businesses who fully understand the importance of helping people pull through the bad
times, to recover and to set them on the road to the good times.
Durham City knows precisely where the people who need to recover are coming from and
where they’re going to because its people will be walking beside them every step of the
way on the road to recovery.
The road is long, the path is steep, and thorns are all around.
The ruins of the times long past, they pull me to the ground.
I do not see the end of pain, the end of solitude.
Meanwhile the winds are blowing cold, and I am drenched by rain.
There is no need for that to be, it's all in your mind’s eye.
This road of yours is bound to fail. Come, let the ruins lie.
Allow the sun to shine on you and give you all you need
Forget about your solitude, and finally proceed:
From petrified eternity to the eternal N O W,
Forget your own mortality, your quest for Why and How.
And thus the end of pain you reach. And thorns will start to bloom.
It's your own walls that you must breach to leave this road of doom.