Gateshead mum dies of drug overdose on daughter’s birthday

Aug 28 2011 by Joanne Butcher, Sunday Sun

IT was a hearing that might have passed unnoticed, an inquest spelling out yet another life claimed by the epidemic of drug addiction in the region.

But on closer inspection, the death of Amy Farbridge revealed a much deeper, more personal tragedy behind the government’s faceless drugs statistics.

Mum Amy, 32, passed away on her daughter’s birthday, just a week before she was due to get married.

Then just six months later, James Fairbairn, the man she had planned to spend the rest of her life with, also died from suspected drug abuse.

The double tragedy accounts for just two of the 225 people who have died from drug poisoning in the North, in the last year alone.

Miss Farbridge lost her life at the hands of heroin abuse – the single biggest killer, closely followed by methadone.

Sadly the figures for 2010 represented nothing unusual.

More than 1,000 people have died from drug misuse in the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire since 2006 – an average of 212 lost souls each year.

Drugs experts have said that far from seeing an easing in the disturbing numbers, the range of illegal drugs blighting our streets has continued to grow.

Michael Linnell, of Lifeline Project, which runs drug treatment projects across the region, said: “The majority of drugs deaths will be as a result of heroin or opiates, and that figure is slightly skewed because the population of heroin users is an ageing one.

“In some of our centres, the majority of service users might be over 40, and we are seeing less and less new recruits to the drug, which is a good thing.

“But we have also seen increases in the popularity of other drugs, such as cocaine.”

Lifeline has also run projects to combat other popular drugs, including benzodiazepines such as Diazepam – which in 2010 overtook heroin as the North East’s biggest killer drug.

He said Redcar has the highest number of arrests for benzodiazepine use in the UK, although he stressed it was usually when paired with another drug – such as heroin or alcohol – that it was fatal.

“Whenever there is recreational drug use, there are going to be deaths,” said Michael. “But there are things which can be done to help. In the case of heroin, one of the problems is that ambulance services might routinely notify the police of deaths, meaning people are less likely to call for help. Having a consistent policy for this across the North would be a positive thing,” he added.