The story of a mother from Birmingham in the UK who said she watched “helpless” as her son’s life hit rock bottom thanks to heroin has gone viral on the web. Donna Hackett told of her heartbreak at seeing her son Danny become hooked on heroin and then eventually die from an overdose, and she could do absolutely nothing about it.

It is one casualty that serves as an example of a problem many, many people are struggling with across the globe thanks to an opioid epidemic, with the street drug heroin being one of the most common reasons for such an overdose. Danny’s situation was particularly extraordinary, as he did not start out as some junky who could not hold a job – he had been a banker at Lloyds TSB bank and had a great future ahead of him.

However, by 2009 he was homeless and living on the streets, addicted to heroin, according to a Birmingham Live report. He finally died of an overdose of heroin in January 2016, just 28 years of age.

Now, Donna is doing everything she can to prevent it from happening to other people’s sons, according to the report. She shows pictures of her son when his addiction was at its worst, and comapred it to those of her son as a child.

You can read the full extraordinary story here.