Russell Brand has not used drugs for 10 years. He has a job, a house, a cat, good friends. But temptation is never far away. He wants to help other addicts, but first he wants us to feel compassion for those affected — like Amy Winehouse.

"It is my belief that if you regard alcoholics and drug addicts not as bad people but as sick people then we can help them to get better," he wrote in the Guardian. "By we, I mean other people who have the same problem but have found a way to live drug-and-alcohol-free lives."

This is the reason he started a fund within Comic Relief, called Give It Up — to raise awareness of, and money for, abstinence-based recovery.

"Guided by principles and traditions a program has been founded that has worked miracles in millions of lives. Not just the alcoholics and addicts themselves but their families, their friends and of course society as a whole."

"What we want to do with Give It Up is popularize a compassionate perception of drunks and addicts, and provide funding for places at treatment centers where they can get clean using these principles. Then, once they are drug-and-alcohol-free, to make sure they retain contact with the support that is available to keep them clean."

(READ the full essay in the Guardian)