Courage to Come Back Award Nomination ~
written by Terry Murphy

Clockwise from top left: Angela, Lora's daughter, Lora's husband, Dalton, Terry, & Lora

Lora is the oldest of four children who grew up in Victoria, BC, with an abusive, alcoholic father. Being the oldest, she felt it was her duty to protect her siblings from their father during his drinking bouts.

After several attempts at running away from home, Lora was placed in foster care at about age twelve. Children’s Aid designated her as incorrigible and she was sent from Eric Martin Psychiatric Ward in Victoria to the Willingdon School for Girls in Burnaby BC.

At fourteen, Lora returned to Victoria and lived with her former foster sister. It was during this time that she graduated from marijuana and alcohol use to hallucinogens.

During a second stay at Eric Martin Psychiatric Ward, she met a man who introduced her to intravenous heroin use and by the age of sixteen, she was fully involved in daily heroin use.

At eighteen, Lora was married and had her first child, a daughter who was born addicted to heroin. She left her marriage to pursue full time heroin use and supported her addiction by engaging in crime and working in the sex trade.

After losing custody of her daughter at age four, Lora was charged with a number of criminal offences that were related to her drug use and as a result, spent almost three years in jail.

In between jail terms, she gave birth to her second child, a boy this time. He was born premature and by the age of one, he was placed in foster care also. A family on the mainland later adopted him when he was four years old.

Lora had attempted to stop using drugs over a dozen times, including extended stays at Eric Martin Psychiatric Ward, several detox centers and programs geared towards alcohol and drug issues.

By age thirty-two, she had no contact with her family, including her children, and had been involved in several violent relationships. It was at this time that she entered detox and was finally successful. At the time, she was homeless and living and working on the streets of Victoria and Vancouver. After completing two weeks of detoxification, Lora was given the opportunity to go to Nanaimo to live in a women’s supportive recovery house, called Westwood House, where she stayed for eight months. During many conversations that I have had with Lora, she has expressed to me that she considers this extended period of supportive recovery instrumental to her leaving addiction and the lifestyle that goes with it behind her.

While at Westwood, Lora dealt with criminal charges she had against her resulting from an arrest for trafficking cocaine. Given her previous criminal record, she was facing a possible two years or more in jail. After almost nine months of monthly court appearances, the Judge, having seen that she was actively trying to turn her life around, sentenced her to a two-year suspended sentence and two years of probation.

While living at Westwood, Lora attended drug and alcohol counseling at the local outpatient clinic. There was a lack of support from staff to council her due to her history of chronic drug use and the poor participation she had demonstrated in previous programs. However, one counselor did take her on as a client and in her own words, Lora says,�I will be ever grateful to him for his kindness and unconditional support.�

When Lora had been clean for two years, she enrolled in an introductory counseling course to explore whether she wanted to pursue a career in counseling. “Thanks to my tenacity,� Lora says, she managed to convince her financial aid worker to pay for the course, and as a result, the following year, she applied and was accepted into the Social Service Worker program at Malaspina University College.

“In retrospect, this was perhaps one of the greatest challenges I’d had to date in my ‘new’ life,� Lora tells me. In spite of completing only part of grade eight, in high school, she entered into a program that required her to write and think at a college level.

In 1992, Lora was accepted into the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria, and in 1994, she received her Bachelor of Social Work degree.

After graduating from the University of Victoria, she applied to work with the Ministry of Children and Families as a child protection social worker. She was hired in July 1994 but did not start work until the following autumn. Due to her previous criminal record she had to go through a very in-depth process with the ministry management to demonstrate that she would not be committing further crimes or endangering the children and families that she would be working with.

Lora went on to work as a drug and alcohol councellor in Nanaimo for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, where she has been for the past five or six years. In my personal opinion, this is her true calling.

Once she was clean, Lora rekindled her relationship with her daughter and now has a loving relationship with her and her four grandchildren.

In 1997, Lora ended a seven-year relationship that she had with a man that she met during her recovery after he became abusive. Although she regrets taking three years to end the relationship, she says that what she learned by leaving the relationship on her own terms was invaluable.

In 1998, Lora was diagnosed with hepatitis C. In her own words, she says, �This continues to be one of my greatest challenges as I struggle work, home and family with an illness that is so unpredictable in it’s symptoms and the impact it can have on my own life."

In December 2004, Lora successfully completed her Masters degree in Social Work. Throughout her graduate work, she also took time to care for her best friend who was suffering from breast cancer and later died in September of 2004.

Lora serves as a member on the board for Clearview Detox Center and is in the process of trying to organize a drug user group in Nanaimo based on the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

I find it very awe inspiring that Lora has come from where she did and has accomplished what she has to help herself and better herself and has then gone on to help others to do the same for themselves.

As a drug and alcohol councilor, Lora’s calm and patient manner has helped many people on the road to recovery. She has a very obvious, affection for the people that she is working with.

For me personally having been an intravenous user of both heroin and cocaine, I appreciated greatly Lora’s ability to understand the draw that the needle can have over a person. Having come from a somewhat similar background, she was also a huge inspiration to me as to what is possible. Lora has been and will continue to be a huge inspiration to me. She is a hero of mine.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to speak to many people here in Nanaimo about Lora and every one of them without exception is very impressed with Lora, with what she has overcome, with what she does for others and with the person that she is. She is admired by friends, clients and colleagues alike.

It is my humble opinion that Lora Johnston-Corbett has overcome huge obstacles and not only become a very contributing member of our society, but is also a great inspiration to other people struggling with chemical dependency. She is a shining example of what a person, any person, can accomplish when they put their mind to it. These are the reasons that I would like to nominate her for the Courage To Come Back Award for Chemical Dependancy.

Thank you very much,

Terry

Thank you, Terry, and congratulations, Lora & her family!