Going public

The book launch, Gerry Ryan, all the other interviews that go with a book launch. Of course, this isn't the first time I've had to talk to the media.

Back in 2006 my mum took pictures of my rotting arms and sent them to a few journalists.

Alison O'Reilly from Sky made a documentary, this is what she wrote a year later in 2007:

She was dying from heroin addiction when I interviewed her in July 2006. The 27 year old from Ballymun in Dublin had been caught up in the grips of drug abuse for 14 years and she didn't have the strength to fight her demons anymore.

Rachael and her family knew it was only a matter of time before her body gave up. She told me she was better off dead.

Her arms were destroyed from injecting. The veins in her body had collapsed and she was now injecting into capillaries which weren't strong enough to handle the heroin, so the citric acid had burned huge holes in her arms.

Her mother Lynda released shocking pictures of the open wounds in the hope Rachael would be hospitalised.

We both got on from the start and I decided to investigate drug treatment facilities in Dublin and try to understand why Rachael wasn't getting the proper treatment she needed.

There are approximately 13,000 drug addicts in Dublin alone and only 20 detox beds. The first step when trying to get off drugs is a stabilisation or methadone programme.

Everyday Rachael works on a 12 step programme.

"Imagine feeling like you are wrapped up in cotton wool. You feel so safe, like no one can hurt you. That's what it's like when you take heroin, it's so overwhelming it's very hard to stop, it takes away all your cares".

Rachael put so much pressure on herself to get clean.  She never stopped trying going from the methadone clinic and then to see her counsellor.

She remained positive through sheer grit and determination but she often broke down when she found it difficult to cope.

Last month Judge Cormac Dunne acquitted Rachael on eight counts of shoplifting and said she was a "role model" for all acutely addicted persons.  She didn't receive probation or a conviction, and he congratulated Rachael on her efforts to rehabilitate herself.