The 1NE drug and alcohol service in Woodford Green has helped thousands of addicts kick the habit.

As their inspirational manager is awarded for her tireless efforts, reporter Crystal Wilde meets the people whose lives she has helped to change.

FORMER service users will agree that 1NE, in the Broadway, Woodford Green, is a life-saving organisation.

So when the community-based abstinence programme was forced to move from Walthamstow after losing its contract with Waltham Forest Council, clinical manager Jo Blackledge, 57, thought nothing of working for free.

Having been with the charity since 1993, Jo traveled to the House of Commons this month to pick up her Contribution to the Community award, after being nominated by the charity's patron, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith.

Special needs worker Denise, 43, from Walthamstow, came to the service in 2006 when she was bankrupt and suicidal.

She said: "I was drinking about two litres of vodka a day and I wanted to kill myself while my young son was asleep.

"I was a complete wreck with no sense of self worth.

"Now I'm three-and-a-half years sober and my son is thriving at school.

"I wasn't anyone before I came in here.

"This place has made me who I am."

Annie, 50, from Loughton, came to 1NE following a string of failed attempts to get sober.

She said: "This place gave me the answers to deal with my issues and get on with being the person I am.

"It's basically saved my life.

"I have the tiara of rehab but 1NE is absolute magic."

Nick,36, from Barkingside, was referred to the service last year with drug and alcohol addiction.

He said: "They're remarkable people here and the programme is superb.

"I've achieved so much being sober and I couldn't have done it without them.

"I didn't have a life before, I was just existing."

Carole, 52, from Chingford, used to work as a nursery nurse at Whipps Cross Hospital.

She said: "I was drinking daily, a bottle of brandy or eight pints of Stella.

"This place deals with the psychological as well as the physical and it has helped me turn the negatives from my childhood into positives.

"I can never repay them for what they have done for me.

"They have given me back my life."

Jo,who works alongside staff made up of 80 per cent former service users, said she felt honoured to receive the award.

She said: "I had a drinking problem myself in the past and I particularly feel young woman with small children find it very difficult to seek help.

"I just think there should be something for the most vulnerable people in society and the fantastic thing about this place is it really works."

Contact the service on: 8220 0132 or visit: 1ne.org.uk