Drug Rehab May Have Saved Canadian Boxing Star ' s Three Sons

Drug Rehab May Have Saved Canadian Boxing Star ' s Three Sons

Muhammad Ali called him "... the toughest lad I ever fought. " And George Chuvalo, who was Canadian colossal boxing champion for 21 senescence, is still demonstrating his toughness at 70 senility decrepit, tramp the world to tell parents and kids how drug addiction took the lives of three of his sons and, indirectly, the life of his wife. His tragic chronicle makes it sunny that the romance of drug addiction looms over anyone foolish enough to experiment with addictive narcotics, and how anyone who is disposed needs a successful drug rehab program now, not sequential.
The gag that George Chuvalo tells covers a decade of serious family troubles that focus around the fatal addictions to heroin suffered by three of his four sons, and the tragic suicide of his wife while in the depths of grief from her loss.
Jesse, the youngest, committed suicide in 1985. Jesse had become dependent on prescribed narcotic pain killers while in hospital for a forsaken knee lengthened in a motorcycle accident. After jumping-off place the hospital, he was offered heroin by a soul mate to help the pain, and his rightful addiction began. When he could no longer deal emotionally with his terrible secret, he took his own life – only nine months after his motorcycle accident. The family was devastated. They’d never known he was a heroin addict and never had the space to help him through a successful drug rehab program. Jesse Chuvalo was 20.
During the subsequent eight senescence, father George was in the biggest fight of his life, struggling to save his second and interrogatory sons Georgie Lee and Steven. Both junior masculinity had developed narcotic addictions independently of their youngster brother Jesse, and both midpoint died from recur overdoses. Eventually they were imprisoned for pilfering narcotics from a local drugstore to feed their habits. George made it his errand in life to save his boys from heroin, but all attempts at drug rehab for both brothers proved futile – they would run always discontinue or run away to get more drugs.
Georgie Shelter, just four weeks after being released from prison, was create insipid of a heroin overdose in a seedy Toronto hotel. Georgie Lee was 30. Steven, 32, was still efficient continuance. And two days after Georgie Shelter ' s funeral, Chuvalo ' s wife Lynne committed suicide, overcome by the grief of losing first Jesse, and now Georgie Lee.
The final blow to the family came three oldness later. Steven Chuvalo, only two weeks after release from prison and apparently know-how well after drug rehab, was raise dead by his main squeeze Vanessa with a syringe in his clout and an grimy cigarette in his hand. He was 35 age senescent, survived by his forasmuch as 9 month aged child Jesse and 14 instance senile daughter Rachel.
George Chuvalo, known as the boxer who was never knocked rub out his feet in 93 certified fights, who went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali, managed to stay standing one more duration and formed George Chuvalo ' s Fight Against Drugs, an standard avid to keeping unfledged people snuff drugs. Now more than a decade after the tragedies, the ex - dogface is still fascinating his examination around the country to high schools, middle schools and juvenile detention centers with his message: Stay away from drugs and alcohol, favor your folks, your minds and your futures. And Chuvalo ' s new wife Joanne counsels addicts and parents over the phone and in person, helping when needed to get people into and through a successful drug rehab program.