By Moira Wyton, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Calen Carswel has been in recovery nearly as long as he’s been alive.

The 61-year-old lost his  older sister, Eleanor, in a car accident when he was just four. The  absence of her love and emotional support, Carswel said, sent him  seeking comfort almost everywhere he could find.

Carswel says he turned to sugar and  television as a child, and then to alcohol, pornography and cocaine as a  young man living in Lillooet, Newfoundland and Vancouver. 

Continue reading Vancouver’s Recovery Café Is an ‘Oasis in the Desert’ →