Sheneece Corner-Davies, a 29-year-old mother of three from Widnes, has been clean for one year and five months after 15 years of addiction to ketamine, cocaine and alcohol. Her recovery began after social services took her to court over the care of her children, and a judge sent her to a family rehabilitation centre instead of removing them.
At the height of her addiction, Sheneece said she was “consumed” and took her children with her on late-night drug runs, sometimes leaving them alone in the flat to meet a dealer.
Addiction from age 13
Sheneece began taking drugs at 13, wanting to fit in with the wrong crowd. By 15, she was committing crimes, self-harming and had been placed in a secure unit. Her substance use continued into adulthood and affected her ability to care for her children.
“I didn’t even realise I was an addict – addicts don’t see it,” she said. “I was using whatever I could get my hands on, every single day. It controlled me completely.”
Court intervention and rehab
When social services intervened in 2022, Sheneece was given one final chance: go to rehab or lose her three sons. She said the fear of her children being taken into care, as she had been, drove her to walk through rehab’s doors.
“That fear is the only reason I walked through the doors of rehab,” she said. “There were no wake-up calls and no sudden realisation that I was hurting myself or anyone else – the only thing I cared about was not losing my children.”
Recovery and new start
After the 12-week programme, Sheneece relapsed on prescription medication and then drinking in 2023, but said something shifted as she realised how far she had come. She found Narcotics Anonymous, got a sponsor, a car and her own place.
This month she started college to study Health and Social Care, with the ambition of becoming a social worker. “Recovery didn’t start with a change of heart – it started with fear. But fear turned into something real,” she said. “I’m not just ‘off things’; I’m actually living now. I’m a present mum, and my children are thriving.”
