Valium / Diazepam News Blog

A year ago today, Matthew Lyle died from a drugs overdose - Now a website detailing graphically the Bangor addict's tragic life has been launched by his dedicated family as a warning to young people everywhere.

Only two days before being found slumped in a lifeless heap on his bedroom floor, Matthew Lyle talked excitedly about a future finally free from the addiction of booze and drugs.

The son of top advertising chief David Lyle, he was desperate to kick his habit.

But minutes after his big plans-for-the-future chat with his beloved dad, a drug dealer stopped the 28-year-old as he cycled to his home in Co Down.

"They never leave me alone," he had already told his father.

That was on Saturday, August 27, 2005. On the Monday, mother Helen found her son dead.

Matthew had been curled up like a ball, with his forehead, "cold, blue, lifeless". On the bed beside him, there were tell-tale signs of drug abuse.

In it, he spoke of the need to "get to the root of the drugs problem" and "stamp out this awful predicament".

The post mortem showed he had been killed by tiny doses of not only morphine and dihydrocodeine, but diazepam as well.

It is a story that will shock every parent - but for any family blighted by drugs, it is, sadly, an all-too-familiar chain of events.

In a no-holds barred account posted on a new website devoted to Matthew, his father, managing director of Belfast advertising agency Lyle Bailie International, tells of his desperate attempts to save his son.

"One of the twists of life is that it's often when your hopes rise that tragedy strikes," he says. "Misplaced hope lulls us, then blinds us to the dangers."

In the early summer just before his death, Matthew wrote in graphic detail about his life on drugs. It was to be an "intimate confession" for his mum, who was preparing to get him into rehab.

Matthew, a talented rock drummer, told how between the age of 13 and 15 he began drinking cider and beer.

Then he moved on to LSD, magic mushrooms and Ecstasy. By 19 he was adding prescription drugs Temazipan, Valium and Morphine to the mix.

In his handwritten letter, he revealed that at the age of 20 he had moved on to selling drugs from Belfast contacts and was making "loads of money".

By then, he needed money to feed a newly-acquired heroin habit. Three years later, instead of smoking the drug, he was injecting it.

"Started diggin' H (Heroin), morphine in my veins," he wrote. "Came close to death many times."

Poignantly, he refers to his loving parents by saying: "Started to lose everything, respect for my parents, who had always supported me.

"Got arrested, busted with smack (heroin) and pills. Two months later my good friends OD'd - dead. Made me think."

After that, Matthew sought help, resulting in a nightmare world of 'cold turkey'.

He signs off with the heart-breaking message: "It's about time I gave my folks something back. They deserve a son they can be proud of."

Ironically, though, just as he was trying to go straight, a dealer called. It would be for the last time.

"He gambled his life on drugs and lost," David says.

"His hopes up, he thought he could risk a little flutter with opiates - and his payback was death.

"I tried to reach Matthew over many years and failed.

"My failure to get through to him is the greatest failure of my life and it is a burden that I will carry with me always."

"He was my wee boy, my beautiful boy," she says simply. "I am so glad I told him that I loved him the day before he died.

"He was standing in the kitchen, making a cup of tea. I gave him a hug and a kiss and I told him that I was so proud of him because he had been clean for three weeks.

"And it was such a tiny amount of drugs that destroyed him in the end. That is what makes it all so tragic."

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