Project Description
“Instantly it was like something was different in my body”
After battling years of addiction, Devin Lyall knew she wasn’t the only one who needed help.
The community where she grew up, taught dance and eventually became addicted had been hit harder by the opioid crisis than most. At one point it ranked second in the country for overdoses, higher than even several major cities.
To Lyall this wasn’t just a number. She had experienced it firsthand. After undergoing five surgeries for an ankle injury, doctors prescribed her opioids, which she continued to take even after the prescriptions ran out. In the process of her addiction, she lost her housing, her job and her children and eventually ended up overdosing.
Lyall survived and was moved to a transitional housing facility in Asheville. Lyall said after only three weeks she became committed to starting a similar organization in Wilkes County.
Out of that commitment, Wilkes Recovery Revolution, an organization which provides transitional housing and other services to addicts, was born.
