Aberdeenshire woman says Benaiah refuge for women with drugs and alcohol addiction saved her life

A woman who has lived with an alcohol addiction for more than half her life says an Aberdeenshire recovery facility saved her.

Benaiah, a recovery refuge for women with drugs and alcohol addiction, has supported hundreds of women.

After battling an alcohol addiction since she was a teenager, Cheryl’s life reached rock bottom. She ended up in hospital and was given life-saving surgery. With the support of Glasgow City mission, she was able to secure a place at Benaiah.

‘’This gave me a future; this gave me an ability to see my future. I couldn’t even see past a day sometimes,” Cheryl told STV News.

“It was always an absolute thunderstorm; it was a thunderstorm in here, but it calmed down at one point.”

It’s been almost a year since she arrived at the centre and Cheryl says it has saved her life.

She said: “The way the programme works, it just has worked so well for me. You start to go on days out, and you get to spend time on your own, and you leave here and get to come back here that night. You feel safe here and that’s a really big reason why I stayed.”

Teen Challenge run the Benaiah centre and two others in Scotland. It has welcomed women from all over the country and beyond since it opened 15 years ago, with more than 200 women coming through the doors.

Paul Beaton, senior supervisor at Teen Challenge North East Scotland, said: “It is a safe place, it’s a dwelling place for women to come and work on themselves initially, because getting clean is the easy part, staying clean is the tough part.

“What we really want to see here is that the ladies find the freedom from the reasons that drive them to drink and drugs in the first place and from there work on a strong move on plan, reconnect with families and restore relationships.”

With seven bedrooms, the centre focuses on building routine and structure through classwork and prayer. It also provides counselling and advice sessions.

Benaiah is also the only centre of its kind in the north of Scotland where mothers overcoming addiction can live with their children.

For women like Cheryl, it’s been a lifeline. She may be reaching the end of her time at Benaiah, but she is already looking forward to new beginnings.