NAPLES, Fla -- What’s often referred to as an epidemic, the dangers of opioid abuse is becoming more prevalent, but one man is taking the matter into his own hands to help fight it. John Emery, who lost his son to a drug overdose in 2015, donated more than $15,000 to the David Lawerence Center in Naples.
"October 23rd, 2015 I got the call no parent wants to get," said John Emery. He was a big healthy kid that loved life."
His son Darius Emery was just 21 years old when he overdosed on a drug laced with fentanyl and that pain of losing his only son, sticks with John every day.
"It hurts, it’s lonely at times, but one reason I’m here is to give other parents hope that life does go on after such a tragedy," Emery said.
The David Lawrence Center, a facility that helps almost 10,000 people every year through mental health and drug addiction programs applied for a national grant. They were hoping to develop and access medication assistance treatment for former inmates but their application was denied.
"When you have a public emergency like this, we have to reduce mortality, if we can’t reduce mortality then you can’t treat individuals," said Nancy Dauphiais, the Chief Operating Officer for DLC.
The grant officials at the David Lawrence Center applied for was for $15,750, and Emery tells Fox 4 when he heard the grant they applied for was denied - stepped up, without a second thought, and donated $15,750
"I’d do it again for a cause just like this one," Emery said. "We’re in a big county, in a big state with big resources, I’m just one guy who luckily writes a check for that."
the David Lawrence Center says 700 people were admitted there for opioid addiction in 2018, the COO says with donations like these, it’s one step closer to get them the help they need and deserve.
"We know that treatment can help and we want to offer hope to individuals so to be able to partner with somebody that’s experienced this in their own lives and find support there, it’s indescribable," Dauphiais said.
For people like John Emery says he says he hopes his son and others will never be forgotten,
"I would just like to end the stigma of addiction it seems that my son has been largely forgotten by society because of the way he died," Emery said.
