ADDICTS celebrated a cumulative 896 days without alcohol or drugs at an emotional final 'graduation' ceremony in Blackbird Leys recovery hub MYOX4.

The centre in Knights Road has run four 14-week drug and alcohol recovery programmes since opening its doors in June 2015.

About 30 people from across Oxfordshire have got clean using the programme which has now drawn to a close as the centre begins a new chapter on the estate.

Speaking to assembled friends, family and volunteers as well as the participants themselves, manager DeeDee Wallace said: "We are so proud of you.

"Hankies at the ready, and get ready to have sore hands at the end of this graduation. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have you with us."

With mentor Dave Eaton looking on, each of the four graduates at Monday's event stepped up to receive a certificate and tell their story to a rapt audience.

One man, a former bricklayer who has now not had a drink for 382 days, said: "Towards the end of my illness my plan was to kill myself, just drink myself to death.

"But this has changed everything. In such a small space of time, in a small building, it's amazing the work that goes on and how life-changing it is."

Another participant, a 30-year-old woman who was clean for years before suffering a relapse, said: "This programme was about a connection with a higher power.

"I liked that. It's a spiritual answer to a spiritual sickness and as long as I continue to do what I have been taught here I don't have to use again; that's very freeing."

Having finished running this course, MYOX4 will spend the coming months shifting its focus to safe drinking and preventative action on the estate as well as running sports and physical activity sessions.

Miss Wallace said: "It's pretty clear that alcohol reduction is a priority.

"That doesn't mean walking around preaching to people that they shouldn't drink, but making sure people are armed with the correct information around intake."

The centre, which is run by a mixture of staff from national charity Lifeline Project and volunteers, will still host Alcoholics, Narcotics and Cocaine Anonymous meetings.

Statistics gathered by the city council's Leys Community Partnership in 2015 indicated that ratios of A&E admissions and hospital stays for alcohol-related harm in Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys are still significantly higher than the Oxford average.