Latest News updated Oct 2025

'I sworejourney with addiction - Comox Valley Record I’d never be that way' - Comox Valley mother reflects her. (Chelsea Coyle, 2025)

Reported by Rene Novak Comox Valley Record October 2, 2025

As B.C.’s toxic drug crisis nears the 10-year mark, it’s difficult to find someone in the province who hasn’t been affected in some way. Since the province’s first needle exchange program launched in the 1990s, the street supply has only grown stronger and more dangerous - so much so that many people now use drugs simply to stay alive. Yet one of the greatest challenges they face isn’t just the drugs themselves, but the stigma that surrounds drug use.

In this series, The Record aims to show that people who use drugs are our neighbours, coworkers, friends, and family; everyday community members who deserve respect. Addiction does not discriminate, and drug use can touch anyone.

Across the table, Chelsea Coyle takes a sip of her coffee and asks if she can read some notes she has put together.

“I like the acronym for HOPE. It’s ‘hang on, pain ends.’ It’s not why the addiction, it’s why the pain,” shares Coyle.

Coyle recounts some of her childhood, how quickly she grew up and how that could have led her down the path of addiction. Her mother is an alcoholic with over 20 years of sobriety.

“I’ve seen how traumatic addiction can be on the family system. I swore I’d never be that way. We never grow up hoping day one that we’d be an addict. It’s often passed down generationally, addiction doesn’t discriminate.”

Coyle’s recovery journey has been long. She has been through nine treatment stints, the final one being a subsequent stay at Stepping Stones Recovery House in the Comox Valley. During her second to last stay, Coyle relapsed while at the treatment facility and was kicked out.

“I was on the streets for four weeks and then (Stepping Stones) ended up allowing me back in. I’m so grateful for that. The doors were closing, my mom, this time she had to do the tough love thing because she has guardianship over two of my children so I couldn’t stay there.”

Previously Coyle had travelled away from the Valley for treatment, thinking that if she changed her surroundings and who she associated with, she would be able to get, and stay, clean.

“I used to go away for treatment, this time around it was, I have family here, I’m always going to come back to the Valley. If this is what is going to do me in, I’m going to be doomed forever. I had to kind of take my power back in that sense. I need to get clean here.”

This final push at Stepping Stones has kept Coyle sober since July 25, 2023.

“I now have over two years clean, I have my kids back in my life on a regular basis. My hope is that I continue to do the next right thing, I’ll be able to be their mom again on a full-time basis. But in the meantime, I’m okay with continuing to show my dedication towards my recovery and making those amendments.”

With the use of opioid agonist therapy (OAT), Coyle was able to maintain her sobriety. She currently gets the Sublocade injections every four weeks. She is working on extending the period between shots to slowly taper off.

Coyle’s experimentation with drugs started with pot in high school, including selling it. She moved onto ecstasy when she was 16. That progressed into cocaine, then crack and eventually after using oxycodone pills, she started using heroin. Her ultimate drugs of choice were crack and fentanyl.

“I did not handle the come down off of crack so I was always wired to down (fentanyl) as well.”

She overdosed many times — more than she can remember — since memories are hazy of her time using. After scaring her mom several times, Coyle knew she had found her ‘rock bottom’ when her mother was taking care of her after another overdose.

“I think about my lowest moments at the end, it was being homeless and my mom picking me up on a regular basis (to treat) cuts and scrapes … I remember my mom tried to help me and had all these buckets, because my limbs - my hands and feet - were covered in burns and wounds and she had them in epsom baths.”

With the support of her mom, who was walking the line between being supportive and dispensing ‘tough love,’ the want to have her kids be in her life again, to be a regular mom, Coyle moved towards treatment and getting sober.

“Ultimately I had to choose between being a mom or being an addict. I couldn’t be both. No amount of dope was numbing that pain that I felt not having them. I’m grateful that I do have them at least now on a regular basis.”

Now Coyle enjoys a regular schedule with her kids and is working to have them more of the time. She has her drivers license now and works at both The Village Clinic and a retirement home. She is working to reduce the stigma that comes with being an addict.

“There’s a stigma around people and addicts and how they choose to be this way or it’s a good choice but ultimately, maybe it is a choice for the first time but after that it's an addiction, again and again.”

As for what worked for Coyle, along with attending Stepping Stones, she credits 12-Step programs and trying different programs to see what clicked for her.

“This time around I did the codependency steps, as they say, ‘Scratch an addict, and there’s a codependent’ - and I really do believe that this is true because before I picked up, my first love was validation. In my younger years, I wanted to be loved, I wanted to belong. I was a people pleaser.”

Now with the last two years of sobriety under her belt, Coyle is starting to find herself again. To discover who she is and what makes her happy.

“These last few years has been this time for me to figure out what I like to do now. Me and my kids, my son especially, have taken up dirt biking. So I still get the adrenaline and I love nature. I joke about it because I think maybe if I had gotten into dirt biking back when I was a teen, I wouldn’t have gotten into addiction.”

Coyle appreciates the things that have come from the freedom of no longer being in active addiction.

“The opportunity to work at an addictions clinic, as a peer support worker, the same clinic that helped m

e in my journey, really makes me feel like I’ve come full circle. Being born and raised in the Valley and struggling for many years, thinking of all the chaos I created … I try everyday to make amends.”

The Record would like to thank the participants in this series for sharing their stories.

Mental health, substance use, and grief services and supports are available. Residents may call Service Link at 1-888-885-8824 to learn about supports that best meet their needs. If someone is experiencing a crisis, they can contact the Vancouver Island Crisis Line, available 24/7, at 1-888-494-3888. To access mental health and substance use services, visit Mental Health & Substance Use Services or HelpStartsHere.gov.bc.ca. For harm reduction information and resources, like where to get Naloxone, visit Toward The Heart. The Village Clinic, the only OAT (opioid agonist therapy) clinic in the Comox Valley accepting new patients, provides support for people struggling with opioid use. You can contact them at 250 331-6333.

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Comox Bay Care Society is very grateful to gain the expertise and support of Rebecca Roberts working both behind the scenes as an Assets Manger and on board of the Mobile Outreach Care-A-Van as Peer Support Worker.

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'The opposite of addiction is con nection' — Rebecca Roberts - Comox Valley Record Sept.25,2025

Rebecca Roberts says that community has been a major part of her recovery from addiction. Marc Kitteringham / Comox Valley Record

"I mean, little things make me happy," Rebecca Roberts said sitting in the sun on a cafe patio in Courtenay. "Even just enjoying the beautiful nature in the Comox Valley."

It was one of the last sunny days of summer, and the breeze was just right.

"I grew up here in the Comox Valley," she said, looking out at the trees. "I moved here just before grade one, did all of my schooling here. I did well in school, had lots of friends."

However, she hasn't always had that stability in her life. Actually there was a time where Roberts was actually reported missing by her family when she was lost on the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver.

Roberts' journey started the way a lot of teenager's do in small towns, with being bored on weekends. She started experimenting with drinking and drugs, eventually realizing she had a problem after too many trips to the hospital.

"The first time that I realized I had a problem, I was I kept finding myself hospitalized from alcohol," she said. "The nurse told me 'did you know that alcohol is addictive?' and I yeah I didn't. I hadn't even really realized that, and it made sense because I would end up in the hospital and then I would be drinking that same day.

"Drugs and alcohol been a part of my story since, you know, from way back," she said. "I had an intervention by mom and about seven of my best friends ... they had hired a worker, and her way of dealing with it was through a 'tough love' approach. It was actually super harmful. However, I did go to treatment on the mainland and stayed clean and sober for about two years.

"Then I ended up relapsing and eventually lost my place and all of my belongings. I was living in my vehicle and eventually that stopped running, and so I was homeless."

As many have experienced before and since, that slope of addiction is slippery. It was how she ended up living unhoused in Vancouver for eight years.

"I had you know a lot of health issues going on from being unhoused and and using you know fentanyl, crystal meth and anything else I could get my hands on. My health was deteriorating and I was just feeling really lost. I spent three years where I didn't talk to my mom or any of my loved ones. My mom finally put a missing person's report out for me and we reconnected then."

After that, Roberts decided to make a change. She put in a request to go to treatment and spent a year at three different treatment facilities. She finished one program after six months, and then did two more three month programs. Eventually she was able to get into second stage housing on the mainland, however it was only three blocks from Hastings Street.

"I had a boyfriend for seven years while I was unhoused and he was still in active use and we ended up reconnecting," she said. "I ended up relapsing and I lost my my second stage place. I ended up back on the streets for about 10 more months."

She still had recovery as a goal, and tried to get her partner to come into treatment as well. She was put on a seven-to-nine-month waitlist for treatment, which she said "is just crazy."

"So many people die in that waiting period of trying to get help," she said.

It got to a point where she had to tell her partner "I'm doing this no matter what. I have to choose me... and I'm making this decision for myself."

She went back to treatment. As she approached her discharge date, she could not find a second stage housing option. However, a friend offered a place to stay in the Comox Valley and it finally started to stick.

"I moved here straight from treatment," she said. "It's been such a wonderful experience coming back to the Valley in recovery."

Now, it's about "just showing up for yourself you know being willing to do whatever it takes, being on top of the basics. Being unhoused for so long, it's taken a while just to kind of feel like normal again and functioning like a healthy adult in in society. I started with getting my ID, and then I got my driver's license and my mom helped me buy a car and that's been a game changer."

To Roberts, recovery is something that is done with others. She said that the opposite of addiction is connection, and to have someone who has been through the process helping along the way was a very important part of her recovery.

"I have a home group through Narcotic Anonymous, it's a women's only group and I religiously go to it every week. That's a huge part of my recovery — having a community," she said. "Going to 12 step meetings is a big part of it. I have a sponsor and we talk weekly ... I'm also a peer support working at the Village Medical Clinic, and am a peer on the Care-A-Van."

When she moved back to the Valley, Roberts was taken on as a patient at the Village Clinic. She worked with a peer named Callum, who she said "truly made all the difference."

"Dealing with someone with lived experience increases the empathy and feeling not judged really helped me feel like I had a team again. I am so grateful," she said. "Gratitude is key to being successful in all areas of my life."

For that reason, Roberts has become a peer herself. She's got a diploma in human service work, and just started taking two social work courses at North Island College, thanks in part to Peter from the Lifelong Learning Centre.

"You can just emphasize so much easier. I truly get where people are coming from, and I'm able to open up and feel that compassion. I enjoy giving that back, because so many people have contributed to my success .. it's really rewarding to see someone come in and go from not doing well to being housed, maybe they've gotten a haircut, to eating solid meals. You get to see people do better. It's very rewarding."

"Giving back, to me, is a huge part of my recovery."

"Being tied to opioid addiction is slavery, really," she said. "It's terrible ... it's ... it's scary when you're doing things that you would never imagine doing just to not get dope sick. The housing piece is huge. It's really hard to get clean or even want to get clean ... or do something positive for yourself if you're not even able to meet your basic needs."

"I just want to give hope that (recovery) is possible. I've come from literally the very bottom to being a functioning part of the society. Just keep trying, because we've lost so many people to the torture of drug poisoning and crisis, and I truly believe that so many deaths were preventable."

"Just don't give up on them because there's always that light," she added. "They're still in there. I know that the substances can make them do things that they're you know wouldn't normally do, but that person's still in there and they need the they need love, they need your love."

The Record would like to thank the participants in this series for sharing their stories.

Mental health, substance use, and grief services and supports are available. Residents may call Service Link at 1-888-885-8824 to learn about supports that best meet their needs. If someone is experiencing a crisis, they can contact the Vancouver Island Crisis Line, available 24/7, at 1-888-494-3888. To access mental health and substance use services, visit Mental Health & Substance Use Services or HelpStartsHere.gov.bc.ca. For harm reduction information and resources, like where to get Naloxone, visit Toward The Heart. The Village clinic, the only OAT (opioid agonist therapy) clinic in the Comox Valley accepting new patients, provides support for people struggling with opioid use. You can contact them at 250 331-6333.

Northern Island Outreach Service:

Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Health & Family Services

Sees Its Dream Come True!

The Comox Bay Care Society recently celebrated a major milestone in its journey towards an updated, new vehicle. After 15 years of dedicated service and countless cherished memories, our original outreach van was passed on to a deserving new home, where it will continue its mission of helping those in need—meeting them where they are.

The transition wasn't easy, requiring many hours to empty the van’s inventory, peel off branding decals, and give it a thorough cleaning—thank you, Meagan, for your hard work! Darlene Linden then took charge of ensuring a smooth transfer of registration, licensing, and paperwork, culminating in the new owners driving off into the sunset.

We are grateful for the many years of service the van provided to our community and are excited to see it continue its journey under the care of Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Health & Family Services. May it have many more years of fine service ahead!

First Picture: Handing over the keys
Second Picture: The van driving away to its new home

Introducing the New Care-A-Van: Continuing Our Commitment to Community Health

For over 15 years, our Care-A-Van has been a beacon of hope and support in our community. Inspired by our founder and visionary leader, Helen Boyd, RN, and made possible through the generosity of Barry Willis, owner of SunWest RV, this specially modified vehicle has provided essential medical and social support to thousands in need. Operating three nights a week, rain or shine, snow or holiday, it has been a lifeline for many.

However, after 35 years on the road, the vehicle is showing its age. Two years ago the Board of Directors began to succession plan by setting aside funding for a newer vehicle, as "Without a Care-A-Van, we have no outreach". With our savings and the generosity of the late Ruby Wilson we were now in a position to search for a replacement.

Today, we are thrilled to unveil our new Care-A-Van. This state-of-the-art vehicle is a 2020 Ford E450 V10 gas chassis on an ALP Adventurer, 26 feet long with 51,000 km. Designed to meet our growing needs, it offers lower maintenance, enhanced safety, and robust capabilities, ensuring many more years of service to our community.

Features and Specifications:

● Interior Layout: Converted Class C motorhome with a side entrance, welcoming chair, dinette for nurse's records, and an examination room with ample storage.

● Comfort and Convenience: Slide-out for additional space, dash and roof air conditioning, generator, solar panel, power inverter, and deep cycle battery.

● Practical Additions: Massive curbside access door, retractable electric awning, and a light bar for winter evening stops.

● Modifications: Rear bedroom converted to an examination table and nurse's station, portable hand wash station, and extensive storage replacing traditional washroom facilities.

Our new Care-A-Van is equipped with the latest safety features and creature comforts, and its rugged strength ensures reliable service for years to come. The entire team of dedicated volunteers including drivers, nurses, cleaners and stocking supply personnel are most excited to see this new vehicle in operation.

In the spirit of giving back, our original Care-A-Van will be gifted to the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations in Port Hardy where it will serve several Indigenous communities in a similar outreach capacity. We are heartened to know that it will continue to bring essential services to those in need.

This new chapter is a testament to Comox Bay Care Society’s enduring vision and our desire for ultimate sustainability of the program. Without the unwavering support of our Board of Directors, Coordinator, and our dedicated volunteers, this hallmark achievement would not have been realized. It must be said that it also required ongoing compassion and generosity of donations from our community.

A special thank you to Comox United Church for providing a home for the Care-A-Van and its operations since October 2022.

With this investment in a new vehicle, we are confident that our mission of "Healthcare on the Move" will thrive for many years to come.

For further information on volunteering or donating please visit our website at CVCareavan.ca