Malcolm and Sally McCready, whose son passed away due to a drug overdose last year, are now sharing their story with others hoping to prevent more people and families from experiencing such incidents. 

Malcolm's son and Sally's stepson Nathon died at the young age of 27 on May 13, 2018 as a result of a heroin overdose. Nathon McCready was no addict, as his father says, but "would dabble in it" once in a while. "Even though my son died, he was not a heroin addict. My son had a drink problem for many years and we tried to help but failed," Malcolm told Meaww in an exclusive interview. 

It is Malcolm's understanding that Nathon developed an occasional drug habit while in prison. "There is a real problem in all of our prisons. I wonder how the drugs even get in. Nathon was in prison a lot over the last 7 years for small petty crimes. While visiting my son in prison, I saw how thoroughly you are checked. There is a shoe check, a mouth check, they check everywhere. It baffles me how the drugs get in," Malcolm shared.

Malcolm's wife and Nathon's stepmother Sally McCready also added, "There is definitely a lot of drugs in prison. That's what we are being told." Sally believes that what would have really helped someone like Nathon was rehabilitation instead of a prison. "He was not a saint by any stretch or means but I do feel for the crimes he was committing, they should have been a recognition that he needed help and not imprisonment. There is hardly enough money in the prison system, let alone to set up more rehab places and I think that's what a lot of these youngsters need."

"I do think that there needs to be some more work done in school, education, and media," she shared. "Perhaps some money should go towards addiction, seems to me that it is everywhere in our communities. There is no other choice the police have but to send them to prison. Whether it is people with depression, mental health problems, addiction, often they need counseling to understand rather than locking them up with other prisoners." 

"Our feeling is that... He would get into trouble for petty theft and do short stints in prison. We felt that that did not help him at all. He needed rehab more than incarceration in prison. He needed help with counselors and rehab rather than prison officers," she added.

"Initially he went in for an awful crime. Thereafter, from 2011, it was theft of vodka and money. I don't know the whole extent. We knew what he would tell us or what happened when he was with us. We are finding out more and more since he died. In the first two prison times, Nathon was clean and fit when he got out, but that was not the case in the last few years."

When Nathon got out of prison for the last time, he was keen not to live with his parents and chose to live in a flat provided. And that was two months before he passed. "We had to go to Scotland for my uncle's mother was not too well. Nathon caught a train to Dorchester which is when we got a call that he had died. To think that he was not okay before he died and we didn't get the chance to help him," Sally continued. 

Malcolm has started a year-long fundraiser for a project called the Exeter Drug Project (EDP) which is an organization which works with helping prison inmates battling addiction. He has also vowed to keep his beard growing for a year in order to raise funds.

You can contribute to Malcolm's fundraiser by clicking here. 

The majority of deaths from drug poisoning or misuse in 2017 involved accidental poisoning, rather than mental and behavioral disorders, suicide (intentional poisoning or death from undetermined intent) or assault. In England and Wales, 74% of all drug poisonings (79% for males and 65% for females) and 80% of drug misuse deaths (83% for males and 72% for females) were attributed to this category.