P user beats addiction to save his sister's life

P user beats addiction to save his sister's life

5:00AM Monday October 22, 2007
By Louisa Cleave

His family were there to pick up the pieces when James Keane hit rock bottom because of his addiction to pure methamphetamine (P).

He credits the love and support of his family and friends for his recovery and now, four years later, the 30-year-old has been well enough to give his 23-year-old sister a kidney.

"I'm so thankful I was in a position where I could give my sister a kidney because if I'd been taking drugs this wouldn't have been able to happen," he said.

"If I was in that state there is no way I would have been able to give Jemma a kidney, and she may not have lived, so it's an amazing thing."

At the height of his addiction, Mr Keane was working in a high-pressure marketing job in Auckland and spending $3000 a week on P.

He began stealing from his employer, lost his job and was evicted from his house.

Mr Keane's family got together $10,800 for him to attend a South Island clinic.

He faced theft charges and completed a hefty community sentence. He is still paying back the $30,000 he stole and debts that mounted when he chose drugs over paying bills.

In December 2003, he met his partner Larissa and the couple now live together outside of Auckland with her 8-year-old son.

Mr Keane says he lives a simple life. He mows lawns and lives close to his family.

He gave up cigarettes 18 months ago to prepare his body for the kidney transplant and underwent extensive tests to ensure his organs had not been damaged by two years of smoking several grams of P a week.

Apart from some scarring to his liver - which doctors said was the result of his drug abuse - he was declared fit and healthy.

The kidney was transplanted in August, and Mr Keane said yesterday that his sister was thriving on her "new lease of life".

He revealed he was not the first family member to make such a sacrifice, from which it took him about five weeks to recover physically.

"My mother gave my sister a kidney when my sister was 9 but it was rejected two years ago."

It was that organ that he replaced in August, ending two years of dialysis treatment for Jemma.

Mr Keane, meanwhile, still attends support groups and avoids people or places that may lead to drug-taking. "It's just madness. I can't believe I led that life but it's still so real in my mind," he says.

"The best thing for me is never to forget that. Your mind is such an amazing thing, you can quite easily just remember the good times of drug-taking - the going out, the nightclubs, the enjoyment - and forget about the bad times.

"It's quite important for me to keep close in my mind how bad it did get - the paranoia, schizophrenia."

Mr Keane he had fretted that giving up P would shatter his ability to achieve anything.

"But that slowly disappears. The more comfortable you become in your own skin, that disappears and you know you'll achieve stuff again."

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