Since 2021, Taking Action on Addiction has been working to reduce the stigma and change negative attitudes towards addiction.
Through education, policy and political engagement, social media, and our work with high-profile advocates, we have started to a shift in the public opinion and desire to support our campaign.
Read our highlights from previous campaigns.
2025
Addiction Awareness Week and 'The Conversation That Changed Everything' | #LetsTalkAddiction
In 2025, our year-long campaign asked the nation to get behind us by talking more openly about addiction.
Built on the premise that every recovery journey starts with one powerful moment, our 2025 campaign ask was to recall one pivotal conversation that changed everything for someone in their recovery journey. Our message was simple, 'Share your story. Start a conversation. Change a life'. And we did! The theme was launched for our 2025 Addiction Awareness Week (AAW25) during 23 - 30 November 2025, with highlights including:
A beautiful message of support from our Royal Patron, HRH, The Princess of Wales, was a key moment of the week and really enabled us to help break down the stigma that sadly still exists around addiction.
Our video series, 'The Conversation That Changed Everything', featured our Chair and former England and Arsenal football captain, Tony Adams. The video was played more than 1.3 million times in the 14 days after it was launched in Addiction Awareness Week (AAW25). Many people joined in and made their own videos and shared on social media. You can view a small selection of these on our Conversations page.
Community events across the UK led to people starting to have their own conversations about addiction in safe, friendly, and supportive spaces. This included our community and support hub, The Brink, in Liverpool, among many other breakout events across England and Wales during AAW25.
Advocates of our campaign showed their support on social media, including Ant & Dec, Alastair Campbell, Bryony Gordon, Lily Allen and many more. It was thrilling to have so many high-profile advocates of our work sharing our campaign. Read our Addiction Awareness Week in review.
Addiction Awareness Week 2024 and 'Addiction Helps Everyone BUT Recovery Is Possible'
During 30 November - 7 December 2024, our campaign was supported by our Royal Patron, HRH The Princess of Wales, and Ant and Dec. Lily Allen joined our campaign as an official Ambassador during the campaign week.
Our 2024 campaign film has been viewed nearly 1 million times on social media. This video featured interview clips from 2023, as well as new user-generated content (UGC) video stories from prominent sober influencers and recovery advocates on social media.
Find out about our new campaign activities including how you can get involved in community events, social media and lending your voice to effect change.
Help change how Britain talks about addiction. Sign up to get involved, start conversations and support the campaign.