What a way to start the New Year. I suspect most people are aware that Action on Addiction has the great honour and privilege of having had royal patronage bestowed on it in the person of the Duchess of Cambridge

In most of the media interviews that followed the announcement, I was asked what it meant for the Charity and I gave perfectly adequate answers, so I am told. But I also think I missed an opportunity. I talked about the organisation but I should have made more of what it will mean for the beneficiaries to whom it really belongs; all those people who for many different reasons slide into addiction and all those people close to them desperate to drag them out of it; those who affect and those who are affected by the condition, whether directly or indirectly.

I should have made more of the fact that some of these beneficiaries we come into contact with and some we never do. (We have the same responsibility wherever they may be.) They come from all sorts of backgrounds across the country and from abroad. They span the human age range. I should have highlighted those innocent victims of circumstance; the children who grow up coping with parental addiction, or the discarded elderly medicating themselves against the seeping chill of loneliness and loss of self worth. This patronage will make their needs more visible, reduce the stigma attaching to them and those around them, make them feel worthwhile and increase the chances of bringing or restoring them to a life worth living.

We wish our Royal Patron a very Happy Birthday.

Nick Barton
Chief Executive