Lying in a pool of her own blood, Elizabeth Forrest accepts the fact she’s going to die in her father’s spare room.
Her life could have been so different. The once bright-eyed young woman had a passion for cooking, and once wanted nothing more than to become a chef.
Instead, alone in a box bedroom, Elizabeth injects heroin into her groin. Her clothes turn crimson as a dark pool of blood forms underneath her. She reaches for the needle again.
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“Whatever I was using wasn’t working because I was using that much of it,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to die’. I could feel it; it was a weird feeling. I was at rock bottom.”
Elizabeth was 21 when she started using speed recreationally. She took amphetamines whenever she went clubbing – recalling how the substance gave her confidence and numbed her mental health struggles.
Before she knew it, Elizabeth was taking the drug on weekdays. Weekdays turned into every day. Then she was using constantly just to be able to function.
A cardiac arrest and a stint in the psychiatric ward should have been enough to stop her. But upon her release from hospital, Elizabeth, from Newton Heath, went looking for her drug dealer.
It didn’t take her long to learn the dealer had been jailed while she was away. Unable to find amphetamines anywhere, Elizabeth was offered heroin. The moment would change the course of her life forever.
“I was seeing a lad and he offered me heroin,” she told the Manchester Evening News. “I tried it and everything in my life, I just forgot.
“My mental health problems went. I was on a fluffy cloud. I was addicted to that within a couple of weeks and started crack cocaine a few weeks later.”
Mum-of-one Elizabeth, who now lives in Colyhurst, quickly found herself on a downward spiral of addiction – one that would see her shoplift to get by while living on the streets of Manchester city centre.
Elizabeth, 45, tried to get clean several times but would always relapse. After spending years injecting drugs into her arms, she began using her legs instead – a decision that would cost her greatly later down the line.
By the age of 40, Elizabeth was on blood thinners due to developing blood clots from injecting. But she continued to inject into her groin, leading to the night she feared she would die as she hit an artery by mistake, before managing to stem the bleeding with towels. Soon afterwards she went into rehab and finally got clean.
Following years of heavy drug use, Elizabeth began developing excruciatingly painful abscesses around her groin area. Despite having several operations, the drug abuse left her with small holes on her legs filed with lymphatic water.
Sadly, the issue means she has to have pads folded onto her groin 24/7 and constantly suffers serious infections.
“The damage is just chronic,” she said. “The constant oozing of fluid is impacting me badly mental health wise.
“I have thought of doing the worst because I can’t live with this anymore. It rules my whole life. I constantly need to be near a toilet to change the pads.
“I can’t change the past but I’m not that person anymore. I have suffered enough with this. I have had sepsis countless times. I got clean and it’s like I’ve been punished.”
Due to also suffering muscle weakness in her leg, Elizabeth is classed as disabled and has to use a wheelchair whenever she goes outdoors. She also has osteoarthritis – which causes joint pain and stiffness – and had a hip replacement 16 months ago.
Despite several operations on her abscesses, nothing can stop her skin from oozing. And although she got clean in 2017 after six detoxes, Elizabeth’s life continues to be ruined by drugs, stopping her from achieving her goal of becoming a support worker for young people.
“My main goal is to be a support worker for young people with mental health problems,” she continued. “But this is stopping things like that. I was told I was going to wreck my legs and I wouldn’t listen.”
Desperate for surgery, Elizabeth claims she approached two doctors who decided against the operation due to the risks involved. This is because the holes are located near certain veins and arteries.
Elizabeth says she has contacted a surgeon she found online and has been told her issue could be fixed with a reconstructive flap using healthy skin and tissue.
However, this procedure would cost £25,000 and £3,000 for tests and scans – money Elizabeth simply doesn’t have.
Elizabeth has tried looking at surgery in Turkey but fears the safety of the procedure and being abroad alone.
“These consequences I have to live with,” Elizabeth added. “I turned my life around. I have my own little flat, four Guinea pigs and my family are back in my life. I attend Narcotics Anonymous meeting to help me keep clean.
“It’s painful. It’s aching all the time. I get dry days then it will just start all over again. I just feel I needed to turn somewhere like this to tell my story of addiction.”
Elizabeth has set up a fundraiser for her operation here.
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