My Friend Bradley Miah-Phillips: In Memorium

It is with great sadness that I have to announce that one of the Storytellers for my Our Recovery Stories project passed away on 10 February 2023 at the Calderdale Royal Hospital. I am still having trouble coming to terms with the idea that Brad is no longer with us, but I know I have some special memories of him, albeit most of them on Skype, and in the words he and I wrote for his Recovery Story.

I first met Brad when Mark Gilman and I travelled up to Halifax in April 2009 to meet Stuart Honor at the Breakfast Club, a recovery-based initiative that Stu had set up and which later became The Basement Recovery Project (TBRP). Brad cooked our delicious breakfast. I was by then living in Perth, Western Australia, having moved there from South Wales at the end of 2008. 

I met Brad in person a few times after that when I visited Halifax. During one of those visits, Brad introduced me to his magic tricks, two of which you can see in the short video below. I got to know Brad better when he became a regular blogger on our Wired In To Recovery online community. We were in regular contact with each other. 

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Stuart Honor Talking at Recovery AM Conference

Start time of Stuart’s excellent talk (40 mins 20 secs)

In my humble opinion, Stuart Honor is one of the very special people in the UK addiction recovery field. Stuart has been doing research on recovery in communities for about a decade and has accumulated more data than anyone else in the UK. Stuart’s research addresses key recovery-related issues and he is never afraid to speak as he sees it… and challenge the system.

I remember years ago when Stuart first contacted me and invited me up to see The Breakfast Club he had set up in Halifax. I was really impressed by what I saw and by what Stuart was trying to develop – a genuine recovery community. You now know this place as The Basement Recovery Project, the CEO of whom is Michelle Foster. Stuart still plays a role.

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