Thank you for giving your time and visiting our JustGiving page in memory of my Dad, Gary Smout.

As many people close to my family know, my Dad unfortunately battled a lengthy war with alcohol addiction, this addiction and the destruction that followed spanned over 14 years of his and our lives, but through utter strength and adversity he was able to win the war and put down the bottle just shy of 7 years ago.

Dad hadn’t touched a drop and had since built an incredible life for himself, he married an wonderful lady called Claire with whom he moved into a lovely 3 bedroom house in the sleepy village of Elmswell, Suffolk, also taking on creating a relationship with her two sons Scott and Toby. He bought himself a Jaguar, and worked his way into respectable positions in his chosen career path. He also regained incredible bonds with all of his family, including my Sister Erin and I, my Grandma and his Brother Mark, whom he adored dearly. 

One of the driving forces behind Dad’s recovery was OpenRoad, OpenRoad are a charitable organisation that serve to help anyone struggling with the crippling affects of addiction get back on their feet and re-enter society, my Dad was extremely fond of their work and the staff who work there. It would mean the absolute world to him, and in turn us if you could spare even just a couple of pounds to go towards helping this amazing organisation carrying on their work.

Addiction is a widely, widely misunderstood illness, behind the awful mask of addiction often lies an untreated mental illness, many people will judge an addict before truly understanding their story, so please, if you can, take the time to understand and help where possible.

Best wishes,

Macauley and family.