From in-demand DJ on line-ups with Idris Elba and Mary J. Blige to delivering drugs for an East London gang: Why Young Lee sought the help of Yorkshire's Ark House Rehab to change his life

"I’d got this glamorous life but I was dying inside,” Young says. “I was putting on this front of everything being okay and really, it wasn’t.”

In truth, Young was an addict. A functioning addict with sheer determination to hold things together and keep up the façade of ‘normality’ he’d somehow perfected. He’d worked in the music scene from 1998.

“In those circles, especially in London, regularly I’d end up at after hours party and there’d be household names on the cocaine…It’s so common in that industry,” he says.

But two decades of using eventually took its toll. Young went from flying around the world as an in-demand DJ to delivering drugs for an East London gang, desperate to do anything to fund his addiction to heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol.

By the time he checked into Scarborough’s Ark House Rehab on Christmas Eve 2018, his addictions had left him unable to work for the best part of five years. “I was living in a grotty flat with no possessions. I guess the stereotypical drug addict,” he says.

He’d tried to get clean, but his self-imposed periods of going cold turkey became progressively worse and his time not using became less and less. He’d sought help too.

Before making the move to Yorkshire for Ark House’s programme, he’d spent time at four different treatment centres, undergone many a detox and had stints in two psychiatric units.

"I was in a really bad place where I literally wanted to die,” says 48-year-old Young, reflecting on the person he was when he started Ark House’s 12-step residential treatment programme. He spent six months there and his life has transformed since.

A few months after leaving, Young secured a job working as a recovery manager for a private company. Now based between Sheffield and Scarborough, he is a counsellor and lecturer for Ark House, helping to deliver its 12-step programme.

“This is more than a job for me,” he says, of supporting addicts. “It’s about helping others, holding our hands out to people and saying I can show you out the way of hell and show you how you never have to go in there again.”

Having lived experience of addiction is key. “We can win the confidence of another alcoholic or drug addict like no one else can.

"It helped me when I was in that space to see others that used to be as bad as me now recovered. They had this look in their eyes - I could see they were full of hope and joy and this ease and comfort.”

Young is set to be among the speakers at a celebratory event on August 25 to mark Ark House Rehab’s 30th anniversary.

Established in 1993, the centre has provided treatment for thousands of people who wish to overcome addictions to alcohol and drugs, supported by staff who are largely themselves in recovery too.

From its beginnings, its founder Bjorn Roswald was focused on the premise of offering low cost residential treatment through a 12-step programme.

Now, CEO Maximilian von Habsburg is working to turn Ark House Rehab into a charity to open up the service to people not previously able to access it. “What we want to do in Ark House now is to give the opportunity of treatment to people without economic means,” he says.

The event at Scarborough Spa later this month will be an opportunity to reflect on the impact Ark House has had in its 30 years of existence, with people who have gone through treatment there invited to celebrate their sobriety.

Rebecca Myers will be among them. When the 43-year-old from Hull started treatment at Ark House last March, she was trapped in a cycle where “nothing could stop me from using”.

Becky had been using heroin since the age of 18 and had found herself in and out of the prison system.

She had a leg amputated as a result of drug use back in 2017 and when she checked into Ark House, procedures to have her evicted from her rented property were well underway.

“I had just had enough of my life, I didn’t want to live no more,” she says. “I was in a really dark place and felt so hopeless. I had nothing left in my life.”

Becky spent six months with Ark House and says her life has “changed dramatically”. “Being taken out of society and given a safe place to recover really helped me," she says.

“Ark loved me when I couldn’t love myself and didn’t know who I was and they showed me how to live a normal life. They’ve absolutely saved my life.”

Becky now works as a member of support staff at Ark House and is a trainee counsellor. She is determined to help others to show “there is a way out”. She and Young have certainly found it.

"Addiction isn’t a quick fix,” Young says, “and what the Ark has done for me and what we do for others is plant seeds of recovery, give firm foundations and offer a path for people to follow when they leave.

"It’s all about this complete change in thinking, in behaviour, in reaction to life...This programme enables us to live in all life’s complexities without picking up a drink or drug. And that is very powerful.”