From Hockey Night in Canadaâs Scott Oake, a raw and honest memoir about his sonâs struggle with opioid use and how he turned a fatherâs worst nightmare into a second chance for others battling addiction.
A fatherâs love. A devastating drug crisis. A stirring call to action.
When veteran broadcaster Scott Oake first held his infant son, Bruce, in his arms, he never imagined that Bruce would become a statistic in the losing battle to opioid abuse.
In those early days, Scott, a new father, watched Bruce with awe, marveling at the potential of his funny, charismatic boy. As Bruce got older, though, he struggled to fit in at school and began showing signs of having ADHD, including a streak of impulsiveness that often got him into trouble. Scott and his wife, Anne, did their best to support him, and for a time, he found community and belonging in boxing and local rap battles. But when Bruce was pulled into a world of drugs and gangs, Scott and Anne experienced a crash course in the reality of loving someone battling substance use disorder.
Then one quiet day in 2011, Scott got the phone call that every parent dreads: Bruce had accidentally overdosed. At just twenty-five, Scottâs vibrant, creative, first-born son was gone forever.
It was a loss that could have broken a man, a marriage, a familyâbut Scott, Anne, and their younger son, Darcy, instead turned the worst day of their lives into a way to help the thousands of Canadians struggling with addiction. After nearly a decade of fundraising and battling red tape and political machinations they launched the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, a free, revolutionary treatment centre staffed by addicts and alcoholics in recovery.
For the Love of a Son is the story of a fatherâs unconditional love for his son. Above all, itâs the story of a young man who never got to grow up and a family who gives others the chance to find their way home.