Weir: Winning The Fight against drug addiction

The greatest fear any family can imagine is the death of one of their children. We were not meant to outlive our kids. Eleven years ago, a young man from Flower Mound, Texas, named Brett O’Keefe succumbed to an accidental drug overdose that took his life. Soon thereafter, his mother, Kathy O’Keefe, began helping other families dealing with addiction through her nonprofit organization, Winning the Fight (WTF) – www.wtf-winningthefight.org. Winning the Fight, a 501(c)(3) organization provides drug education, support, and necessary resources to youth and families that suffer from the disease of addiction.

The following is from the WTF website: “There is a resurgence in drug addiction all over America that is coming back in a very real way. Most of the time it starts with prescription pills, but quickly leads to more extreme drugs. People that are affected by this are not psychologically disturbed, junkies or criminals, but normal kids that come from very normal families. The Center for Disease Control declared that in 2017, 72,000 people died from drug overdoses. That is one person every 7.3 minutes. Of those numbers, 49,000 were from opioids.

“Our goal is to educate. Most families do not educate themselves to the destruction of addiction until it happens to them and then it becomes necessary. They make drug use a moral issue when it is not. Our goal is to help parents realize that this can happen to normal families. This is happening in areas all over America. If no one speaks out, we cannot change the stigma and the judgment.”

In the video interview, Kathy O’Keefe, Executive Director of WTF talks about her organization and her efforts to end the scourge of drug addiction that has crippled our country. Ms. O’Keefe sent the following short bio:

“Kathy holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Harrington Institute in Chicago, IL. and has worked in Sales and Marketing for 35 years. She has served many positions on the Boards of Business and Professional Women (BPW), American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) and American University Women’s Association (AUWA). She has done television, newspaper and radio interviews with WBAP, Fox News, Fishbowl Radio, Cross Timbers Gazette, Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star Telegram.  Kathy received the Flower Mound, Outstanding Citizen Award of 2016.  She and her husband of 29 years, raised both their boys in Flower Mound, TX.”