'Recovery Olympics' returns bigger than ever as Stirling event goes from strength to strength

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Stirling once again played host to the ‘Recovery Olympics’ on Friday - with groups from all over Scotland coming together for a day of fun and friendship.This year’s event at Forthbank Stadium saw hundreds of people from various recovery communities and organisations involved in helping people with their journey out of drug and alcohol addiction take part in a competitive programme of games.It’s the sixth time that the Forth Valley Recovery Community has hosted the event, with this being the first ‘national’ Recovery Olympics since the event’s inception.The 2022 version also marked a return to sights and surrounds of Forthbank after Covid forced last year’s event into a much smaller affair at the Mayfield Centre in St Ninians.The traditional variety of games including the egg and spoon race, sack race and sprints took place - with groups from North Lanarkshire, the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway among those competing.The Observer spent the afternoon speaking to some of those taking part on the day.Scott Ferguson from Stirling now works for Forth Valley Recovery Community (FVRC) as a recovery development worker after first coming to the group six years ago.

He said: “I got involved when I was still on prescription medication and things were still a bit chaotic in my life and I was living in homeless accommodation in Stirling.“The first Recovery Olympics was actually my very first event that I went to with my son and I saw guys and girls from my past that I knew and from that, I started going to one of the cafes in Raploch on a Friday afternoon.“It’s just been a progression from there and it still is because recovery is a process of constant change.“After 20 years of active addiction, I wasn’t really living my life and