Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

Overdose Awareness

“Let’s start being kind to each other”: Kamloops woman asks for compassion on International Overdose Awareness Day

Aug 31, 2020 | 4:35 PM

KAMLOOPS— In Kamloops, many families have been impacted by losing a loved one to an overdose. These families have been crying out for help and for a change in attitude toward those affected by addiction.

Today (Aug. 31) is International Overdose Awareness Day, and a local woman has created a display in her front yard to honour her nephew who died nearly four years ago.

“I personally didn’t have a chance to save my nephew, and I can’t even tell you how horrible that is.”

Angie Dzaman is on a mission to prevent other families from experiencing the grief she has felt over the past four years. On November 6, 2016, her 23-year-old nephew Tyler Laybolt died of an overdose.

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Tyler was a father and a rapper who had recently signed a record deal. He was dearly loved by his family.

“About 10 months before he died he called me and he said, ‘Auntie, can you come get me? I need help,'” Dzaman said. “So, of course I went to get him. Picking him up and him looking at me saying, ‘Auntie, I’m going to die.’ And I said, ‘No, no you’re not. You’re absolutely not. I’m going to find something for you.'”

Dzaman was never able to afford the help her nephew required.

“I went to everywhere I could possibly think to ask for help,” she said. “Three times he was ready for help, and had I had my plan, what I’m putting together, if I had that on one of the three times that he asked for help, I honestly believe in my heart of hearts, he would still be here.”

She wouldn’t go into detail on her plan, but Dzaman says it will be accessible to everyone.

“At the end of the day, someone can phone a number that we’re going to have and the first thing they’re going to hear is, ‘Hi, thank-you, how can we help you today?'”

Dzaman is a member of the group Moms Stop The Harm (MSTH), which would normally host an event for International Overdose Awareness Day.

“This year, due to COVID, we can’t hold an event,” MSTH member Sandra Tully told CFJC Today, “so we will be doing a purple ribbon campaign, so we’ll be putting up purple ribbons in awareness with some information attached to those ribbons. That will happen all across the country, every city is participating in that.”

It’s hoped this campaign will inspire people to change their perspective on addiction, and treat everyone with a little more kindness.

“Let’s start being kind to each other,” Dzaman said, “let’s start helping each other, because being nasty, look at where it’s gotten us.”