I heard today that a 17 year old lad that lived near me died suddenly last night. I didn't realise I knew him until about 12 hours after I first heard - as I only knew him by his nickname.
He was a good hearted lad, with a great sense of humour and he will be sadly missed by many that knew him - including those that are currently sitting exmas at school. I hope that they don't mess up their future by messing up their exams, like this lad messed up his future by messing up his life.
You see, he died while sniffing lighter fluid. People around him thought he had stopped it, but it turns out he was back on. Anyone that knows anything about it will know that it can kill very quickly and very effectively.
I ask 'did he ever have a chance?' because his background was very unsettled. He was around drug abusers growing up and never had the chance or possibly the motivation to move away from the people that were around him all that time. Someone that would have been very much a father figure to him took a serious trip on magic mushrooms not all that long ago (a year? two years? no more than that) and his neighbour called along him thinking that he was in a serious fight, with all the noise. No, he was 'doing Jesus' - stabbed himself, inserted objects where they should not go and was about to saw off his leg when the neighbour came in.
Maybe this sounds like the previus newspaper report was accurate, and that drug abuse is rife up her - but although it is a problem (as it is in many many places), these types of event don't happen any more or less than on mainland Britain. The difference is there is a higher chance of knowing the person, or knowing of the person.
I really hope that this does some good in making the other kids around him aware of the acute dangers of meddling with sniffing - gle, lighter fluid, aerosols, whatever. If anything comes out of it, I hope its that.
It's a sad day.
