Nik's Run for Addiction Awareness

Nik's Run for Addiction Awareness is a 5k Run/Walk to raise awareness of our country's Opioid Epidemic. More than 60,000 people died from an Opioid overdose alone in 2016 (64,070). That number surpasses the amount of American lives lost in the entirety of the Vietnam War (58,200), according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control).

Nik died from an accidental opioid overdose at the age of 22. Our son first became addicted to prescription painkillers and then turned to heroin. Opioid addiction often begins with prescription painkillers and moves to heroin when the prescriptions become difficult to obtain or are too expensive.Prescription painkillers are FDA approved while heroin is considered an illicit drug. Both prescription painkillers and heroin are derived from the poppy plant which makes their chemical structures highly similar.

Nik's life and passion for running will be celebrated as well as raising Addiction Awareness. Addiction is not a moral issue, nor is it prejudice. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease as quoted by the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse).

The 5k course travels along the beautiful Oklawaha Greenway beginning and ending at Patton Park's small pavilion, in Hendersonville, NC. This is a fast, flat, out and back course. Please join us as we promote getting high on running-NOT DRUGS!!

All proceeds will benefit HopeRx.

Hope Rx is a community-based prescription drug abuse initiative centered on education, prevention and treatment. HopeRx has been developed by Henderson County Partnership for Health as a community collaborative to educate the public about the dangers of prescription drug abuse in Henderson County and help identify effective environmental strategies for prevention as well as treatment options. HopeRx is based on a public health model with the premise that drug overdose deaths are preventable and that all communities are ultimately responsible for their own health.