Testimonials

The Loop works with a number of professional partners and has a presence at clubs and festivals throughout the UK. Below are some testimonials from our professional partners, as well as friends and relatives of people who have used our services.

On the opening night of The Warehouse Project season, 27th September 2013, sadly, Nick Bonnie died from a drugs overdose. On a personal level, this is something that will never leave me. There isn’t a day that goes by without me thinking about the tragedy or his family. What could we have done to avoid the tragedy, is a question that I ask myself time and time again. The actual answer, is nothing. We were already going above and beyond what we were expected to do. We run one of the most stringent policies in the country.

I was very much aware of Dr Fiona Measham prior to the tragedy. In fact, we had scheduled Dr Measham, working alongside the Home Office, at a couple of WHP events in order to test confiscated drugs.

Literally from the tragedy, to the end of the series of 2013 events, The Loop and Dr Measham helped us to educate our crowd. The Loop attended each and every event. Our customer feedback from the presence of The Loop was incredible. Moving forward, we will always ask for The Loop’s support, whether it is the WHP or Parklife. In return, we will also support them, nominating them as one of our official chosen charities.

Sacha Lord-Marchionne

The Warehouse Project

Greater Manchester Police worked alongside the Loop Charity for the first time at this year’s Parklife Weekender Music Festival to reduce the danger of drug use at the festival. The event organisers, The Loop Charity and Greater Manchester Police worked in partnership to develop an approach which included fast time testing of seized drugs at the event site.

Professor of Fiona Measham and her team from The Loop Charity were fantastic; they offered advice at the planning stages through to setting up their mobile laboratory and testing on the festival site. The Loop team identified substances of concern that we believed might be in circulation at the event we then public safety messages to festival goers through the event organisers and their social media to warn of the dangers.

Often the Police can solely focus on detection of drug offences and capturing offenders, whilst that is important it I also essential to include a prevention and public health element to you plans, the loop Charity were instrumental in providing this element to overall public safety plan.

As Police Commander for such events I am always interested in new ideas that can reduce the risk to the public, after all, we are all here to ultimately protect the public. I look forward to working with Fiona and her team at future festivals.

Chief Inspector Gary Simpson

Police Silver Commander Parklife Festival 2014

I first started working alongside The Loop during the 2013 season of The Warehouse Project. As part of the event medical provision, I regularly have to treat patients who are under the influence of recreational drugs, both legal and illegal, some of which are life-threatening. Having staff from The Loop on hand has proved to be invaluable, not just due to their extensive knowledge of the recreational drug scene, but also because of their calm and collected approach to welfare. We have been able to make use of volunteers from The Loop to build trust with patients who might be nervous of talking to uniformed ambulance personnel. Because of their non-judgemental approach and focus on harm reduction, some of my patients who have refused to tell me what has been taken have subsequently told volunteers from The Loop, thus allowing me to provide the necessary medical treatments.

I have been impressed by the commitment of the staff at The Loop to their mission, and how they have been so reliable not only in terms of their knowledge and experience, but also in their approach to the practical consistencies of staffing events with their volunteers. I have come to rely on individuals such as Chris, Gemma and Fiona as one of my first ports of call of advice and recommendations on how best to plan for patients under the influence of recreational drugs. This was key in the preparation for The Parklife Weekender 2013, where I met with The Loop on several occasions to help plan the medical provision for the event. Having their knowledge allows me to ensure we have the right plans in place for each event being covered, and The Loop provided us with vital and up to the minute information about treatment for common recreational drugs in advance of the event.

The involvement of The Loop has directly led to better patient care at both The Warehouse Project and The Parklife Weekender, and the relationship between medical staff and volunteers from The Loop has gone from strength to strength. I look forward to working alongside them at future events, and know that their mission is not only invaluable and necessary, but specifically has led to real lives being saved.

Pete Morris

Manchester Medical Services

As a mum, who accompanied my daughter (last minute.com!) i have to say I was so very impressed with the service and hospitality shown by the volunteers in this tent. I could have a cuppa, and whilst there having a rest, could just observe the kindness and non judgmental attitudes of all the helpers. It truly is a vital service and so very well needed…..great to know that “loop” is there.

Mother of Parklife 2014 festival-goer

Two weeks ago I had a phone call at 3am from a drugs worker at whp. My 20 year old daughter and one of her friends had taken MDMA and possibly another hallucinogen, 2CB, and were seriously disturbed. So I picked them up, nice middle class kids both. Probably with some experience of this kind of drug but not enough. Off their heads, randomly striking out at ambulance staff and others, shouting, yelling, wrestling, carried into the car and then into the house- we only got them home with the help of the WHP security staff who were exemplary in their patience and tolerance. If no-one had picked them up they would undoubtedly been arrested (perhaps should have been arrested) and/or hospitalised. If they’d wandered away from whp they could easily have ended up under a bus. After an hour or so of screaming, throwing furniture, striking out they flattened out and started to come to some realisation of what had happened, and how fortunate they had been to come to no harm… (Goes on to say) … Be grateful for those drug worker volunteers and security staff on a low hourly rate who might just scrape you up and save your life.

Mother of WHP customer