A father-to-be has revealed that he has been left with a permanent ‘dent’ in his nose after spending more than £35,000 on cocaine binges.
Bradley Robinson, 30, hoovered up more than the cost of a house deposit on the Class A drug over a period of almost 15 years.
The driveway worker, from Failsworth, Greater Manchester, first took the drug at a party aged 16, but after becoming addicted he was soon spending up to £1,500 per week to satisfy his cravings.
Mr Robinson’s story comes amid growing concern over Britain’s cocaine problem – particularly among the middle-classes – with use of the drug doubling over the last 20 years in the UK.
An estimated one million Britons use cocaine – which can cost as little as £40 – while around 50,000 seek treatment for addiction each year.
Mr Robinson – who has been sober for the past eight months – took so much of the drug that he has been left disfigured with a collapsed nostril.
Cocaine is predominantly taken by ‘sniffing’ it from a flat surface through rolled up tubes of paper or pound notes. For Mr Robinson, years of drug use caused his nasal cavity to become eroded as the drug, and chemicals used in its production, damaged the fragile membranes inside the nostril and sinuses.
He said: ‘I liked cocaine because it would block all my feelings and it gave me confidence. It brought me out of myself.
Mr Robinson has been left with a permanent ‘dent’ in his nose as a result of his abuse of the Class A drug
A close-up of Mr Robinson’s collapsed nostril
‘Then it became a pattern – it was more or less every single day from the age of 21 that it was a real problem for me.
‘I was sniffing every single day.’
Despite recognising he had a problem, breaking free from the shackles of addiction proved difficult.
Mr Robinson first entered rehab in 2018, but relapsed within a year. A second attempt in 2020 ended the same way, with alcohol repeatedly acting as the trigger for him to seek out the drug.
Research has found that alcohol can trigger cravings for cocaine, with studies finding that nearly 60 per cent of people with a cocaine abuse problem have an accompanying alcohol disorder.
‘That’s what would get me every time,’ Mr Robinson says. ‘I would go back to the drink and then I’d finish my first drink and bang, I’d be straight at it.
‘It became like a cycle for me then. I was trying everything – I knew what I needed to do but I was choosing not to because I hadn’t fully surrendered.
‘The consequences become a lot worse – I was losing relationships, I had to leave my job, everything just got on top of me.’
The long-term damage has left Mr Robinson permanently self-conscious about his appearance.
He added: ‘My nose is dented in and that’s through excessive cocaine using – it’s horrendous.
‘It’s got to the point now that I’m clean and sober where I’m scared to blow my nose around people because I’m scared people might still think that I’m on it.’
Mr Robinson said he ‘could have bought a house’ with how much he spent on cocaine.
Bradley Robinson sniffed £35,000 worth of cocaine over a period of almost 15 years
He also admitted that his parents bailed him out of £35,000 worth of debt.
‘I’ve rinsed all my money and it’s upsetting sometimes,’ he said. ‘It’s what I’ve put my family through as well – they worked hard for their money and they’ve had to pay people off for me, it’s so sad.’
Now, however, Mr Robinson says his life has been transformed.
After giving up cocaine for a third time last September, he is preparing to become a father, with his child due in November.
‘It’s providing me with even more motivation and purpose for recovery,’ he said.
‘Everything has happened now in my life for a reason – everything now in my life is set.
‘If I was to go back out there now and use then that would be a choice. Knowing what I now know, going back out there and using would be a choice, and I won’t ever choose that again.’
Mr Robinson now hopes sharing his story will encourage others struggling with addiction to seek help.
He said: ‘I think my purpose in life now is to share my message and get it out. You don’t have to be alone; you don’t have to go through the pain I went through.
‘Drugs are not good whatsoever – it started off as one key of cocaine and all this happened.
‘Get up and grab recovery with both hands. The hardest bit for me was walking through the doors at that meeting. Once you walk through those doors, you’re ok.’
