He is being assisted through his relapse by Granya House, which launched its annual Drug Run yesterday to raise money to rehabilitate addicts on the Border.

Since the age of 14, Mr Jacobsen had not been clean for longer than four weeks, until he spent 12 months at Granya House.

Trying to go out on his own last year after graduating from the program, he returned to his old habits, until addiction took over his life again.

A pint out at lunch turned to drinking at home with dinner.

Suddenly he found himself spending 23 hours in his unit drinking vodka out of the bottle.

The other hour he rode his bicycle to the bottle shop to buy more vodka.

But after acknowledging he had not overcome his addiction, Granya House took him back with open arms.

Before Granya House, Mr Jacobsen tried all sorts of methods to curb his addiction, including meetings, psychologists, psychiatrists and medication.

He said there were others like him looking to Granya House for help, but lack of funding meant it didn’t have the capacity to take in any more than 15 men at a time.

Increases in cost of living have taken the Granya House electricity bill from $2000 to $4700 a quarter.

And extensive publicity over recent years hasn’t equated to an influx of funding.

Granya House director Anne Newton said to help more people it needed to extend its facilities and hire full-time staff, as most staff are momentarily volunteers.

Mr Jacobsen said it was a program the Border needed, to help people like himself.

The 24-hour run will be held on Friday, August 26, with an auction and dinner on Saturday, August 27, with guest Jason Akermanis.

Editorial — page 16