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"She passed away in my arms, and that day, my life changed:" Mother breaks the cycle of addiction

A local mother struggled silently with substance abuse for more than a decade, trying to ease the pain of life’s reality. But now, she's giving back after she's found her new beginning.

Autumn Allen says moments after losing her child in her arms, due to a challenging pregnancy over 13 years ago, her life changed forever.

"She passed away in my arms, and that day, my life changed".

She struggled silently with substance abuse for more than a decade, trying to ease the pain of life’s harsh reality.

“I started abusing all kinds of medications, I never went a day without them,” Allen said.

Full of anxiety and fear, she started abusing pain medicines prescribed by doctors, but that eventually led to heroin.

She once was a loan officer for a major corporation and says she was able to hide her struggle.  

“I suffered silently, for a long time,” Allen said. “September 16, 2016, I came home from work and I found my husband unresponsive in the bathroom. I was unable to revive him.”

Losing the love of her life, with nowhere to turn.

“I was so sick and so lost, I became homeless after that, like, I walked away with the clothes on my back,” she said. “I was miserable, I was hopeless, I was so broken, and to be honest with you I prayed every day but the prayers I was praying was for god to end the misery.”

Praying for strength, she publicly began her new walk In May 2017. She began detoxing at Gateway Community Services Inc. Just months after she began her journey to get clean, her mom died of an overdose.

“March of last year, my dad found her [mother] unresponsive,” Allen said.

Now determined to break the chains with a new found purpose, she says she’ll never turn back.

“I’ve never cared about other people, I was really selfish,” Allen said. “Today I don’t really think my life is about me anymore. It’s really about helping other people, every day I try to help other people.”

So, you’re probably wondering, where’s the motivation in a story like this? Allen gives back every week, participating in 'Hotdogs for Hope,' feeding the homeless on the First Coast.

Each and every Monday, a group of 20-25 people prepare up to 250 bagged hot dog dinners to distribute to those in need in downtown Jacksonville. In addition to food, they distribute purses filled with hygiene products, provide laundry services, bibles, coats, and most importantly, the gift of hope.

A gift that helped Allen herself break the cycle of addiction.

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