Saved, and dedicated to helping save others

A woman whose life was saved by Rotoroa Island is now saving other lives on the streets of Christchurch.

Gaylene, now 44, was told about the island by a doctor when she was in Middlemore Hospital with severe pancreatitis in May 2000.

"I was told that if I continued to drink I had only two years to live," she said.

She had started life well. She had a job she loved and was a top equestrian rider. But in her early 30s, things went wrong. She was made redundant, lost a property she part-owned, and her favourite horse died.

"I just hit the bottle," Gaylene said.

After two short and unsuccessful spells on Rotoroa, she was committed at her brother's request for compulsory treatment under the Alcohol and Drug Addiction Act of 1966, which is still in force.

"The judge sent me for an indefinite period of time," she said.

"That's when I did a lot of soul-searching. I surrendered my life to God, because the programme has a spiritual base.

"I prayed every night and every day for God to take away that desire of drinking and, praise the Lord, that happened! I came off the island in April 2001 and I haven't had a drink for nine years now."

The environment helped. "It's a place of healing," Gaylene said.

"And the treatment programme - they teach you strategies on how to cope with things that happen in your life."

There were art classes and opportunities to pursue other interests - Gaylene came off the island with a diploma in freelance journalism.

But after leaving she trained as a Salvation Army minister and worked for five years as a social worker at the Nest in Hamilton.

Gaylene now runs the Salvation Army's Christchurch street outreach service, taking a van out at night to feed the homeless and running a drop-in centre for prostitutes.

Because Rotoroa Island saved her, she can now save others.

A homeless man told her he had been about to commit suicide, "but thanks to the Salvation Army van going round he said that's like family to him and you saved his life".

A young prostitute who was addicted to morphine asked for help to get off the drug so she could get her children back.

"It did save my life," Gaylene said. "If that island wasn't there, I know for a fact I'd be dead by now."