Moorhead Woman Spreading Messages of Hope Through Sobriety
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A Moorhead woman is sharing her journey from being addicted to alcohol to getting sober.
She took part in the Unite to Face Addiction Rally in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.
Our D.C. reporter Connor Morgan reports.
“I just started drinking and initially, it was such a good feeling. And I remember one morning I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to have a Bloody Mary.’ And that was the end of it for me. I ended up becoming a 24-hour-a-day drinker,” says Kerry Leno, ReGroup Volunteer Coordinator.
Moorhead resident Kerry Leno has felt the effects of addiction firsthand.
She started drinking heavily in the mid 2000s as a result of a failing marriage.
What she began to realize was she was losing her fight with life.
“I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing because I was going to die. If the booze wasn’t going to kill me, I was going to kill myself.”
Leno says she found sobriety three years ago.
Now she finds herself in Washington DC at the Unite to Face Addiction Rally.
“I’m honored to be here. And I’m honored to be able to say that Fargo-Moorhead supports recovery and supports peer advocacy,” says Leno.
There are tens of thousands of people in attendance at today’s rally.
Leno says she hopes the turnout will send a message that changes need to be made.
“People are going to keep dying. In order for things to change, we need to get together in the masses. We need to get together and we need to push for the same thing and that’s to have a voice in recovery,” says Leno.
Leno says she hopes today’s events will trigger that change.
She says she plans to come back next year but this time with more friends.
“I’m getting a bus prepared next year. We’re going to get a bus of 40 people. Look out Washington D.C. Here comes the North Dakotans and Minnesotans!”
The D.C. Unite to Face Addiction Rally even included music from big stars like Steven Tyler and Sheryl Crow.
The metro’s version of the rally was held last night.
