I will be walking for those who watch their parents struggle with addiction. Who knows the worst and the BEST qualities in an addict. I will walk for my childhood. I will walk for every time I had to tie off a vein, not knowing how to tie off my shoes… For having a relationship NOW when it’s just all too late and I only have the comfort of knowing the ashes in my closet. I will walk for the HOPE that mental illness will be treated more seriously for the addict, for their family, for their children, for their grandchildren. With my story… DHR was so quick to treat my mother like a monster that it only caused me MORE trauma to where I now have a mental disorder that will forever be brought up in my face every time I bear a child, every time I have a struggle, it is etched in my permanent record… When my mother suffered the SAME THING and only needed someone to love her… someone to give her a hand… someone to be a little humble… someone to offer her a little therapy… 
I walk to hopefully one-day TREAT addicts like humans, treat them like people. I am proud to say I have never touched a drug in my life but I have been so deeply in LOVE with an addict that their pain seeps through me still to this day and if I could just get my mother back for 5 minutes to tell her that I would have been there more for her and treated her less like a monster…. I would lay down my own life to just tell her I am sorry. My son wants his Grandma back. An innocent soul sees no wrong… She was sober for him. 
If I could just tell her how sorry I am… Tell her how humble I have become and walk for a cure to heal her mental pain I would have been more patient. I would have been a better daughter. I would have been stronger and more loving. THAT is why I will be walking. 
Team Allie