Hi there I’m Lou and I’m John

It’s been a year now since we launched the Chain of Care, so we thought it would be good to just give some feedback.  If you’ve been with us for a year, you may think, whoa, didn’t that go quick!

The Chain of Care is a very simple idea.  It’s a strategy about donating, not just cash but also your support.  So, yes, we do ask that you donate money to support the website, but we also ask that you support each other through the Forum.

What we say is, if you’re getting something out the site which is free, then help us keep it available.  We don’t have any special funding that we pull out the bag, so we need donations to keep the site going.  Therefore, if you’re being helped, would you help somebody else like you that might arrive six months later.  We can’t express how much every tiny donation helps.

And the good news is that, through your generosity, we have almost covered the major site fees for this year.   There is still a shortfall, but that’s something that we were expecting.  And, if we’re really honest about it, we really haven’t pushed the chain of care at all.  You might think we have.  We’ve kind of mentioned it from time to time but that’s about it.

I have to say thank you, thank you to everybody who has responded, everybody who has decided that they would take responsibility, not just for themselves but for the next person that’s coming along.  Because that’s really what the Chain of Care is all about.  It’s about caring for somebody else, rather than just caring for yourself.  And it’s good as it helps to break the pattern of self-absorption, that is part of the whole addiction issue.

So, thank you for everybody who has put their hand in their pocket, and everybody who’s donated and helps keep the site open for another year.

Proportionally in terms of donations families have donated more often than drinkers by three to one at the moment so come on guys, us drinkers need to be more supportive!!  We need to keep this thing going.  So help us to keep it going, come on drinkers you can do this.

A Problem

However, this particular video is not about the Chain of Care, well it is, but we have a specific issue and unfortunately we have to come and ask you to help us to keep this site going.  Over the last couple of days our internet service provider, which, if you look at the bottom of the website, you’ll see it’s Internet Creation.  They’re the guys who keep the site going.  They make sure it’s up and running and make sure it’s secure etc, they do all of that for us.  I have to say that they are great and they have been very supportive of us. However, you may or you may not be aware that some parts of the website may actually be shut down at the moment, in particular, the drinkers’ tools.  The reason for that is that some of the code that gives the website its interactivity is really quite old and it’s now representing a security risk.

If you wish to help us by donating, please use the form below.  You can choose amount, currency and frequency of the donation.

Thank you for your help and your support.

Now your safety online, as well as your safety in general, is very important to us and because of that we’ve had to shut down some of the tools for the moment.  Can we just say very clearly it’s Bottled Up for drinkers that is affected.  The family area is okay, apart from the Intervention.  The intervention unfortunately may not be working at the moment. It’s mostly the drinkers’ website, eg the assessment tools for drinkers which is shut down at the moment.  The problem is that it really needs a complete revamp of the old code to bring it up to date and make it secure.  Because, if we switch it back on just now it could represent a risk for the rest of the website and that’s what we really don’t want at the moment.

Can we assure you, there is no risk but in the near future there could be a risk.  We are in the process of adding a new firewall and there’s a whole raft of security but, because the age of this code, it has to be revamped to make it secure again.  But of, course, that costs money and that’s why we’re here today.  We have to ask you to help us to make the website viable again.  We need somebody who will sit down and go through all the code.

Internet Creations have looked at it, they’ve looked at what needs to be done they’ve scoped it out and they will do it for us and they will do it fairly quickly.  But obviously, they need to be paid.  They have estimated about £1200 pounds.  It’s not an astronomical amount of money, if you’ve got it.  Unfortunately, because it’s a free website, we don’t have the money coming in.

So, we’re going to post a new a page up – a giving page.  Here is the link.  So please come and help us by giving a donation.  With all the cyber crime and hacking going on at the moment, we need to make absolutely certain that Bottled Up is a safe website.  Again, please let us reassure you, it is safe.  But so that we can offer you the full range of help and support for you and your drinker we need to update some parts of it.

If you can help us by donating that would be fantastic.  You would be securing the website for you, your family and the many, many families that will need this type of help and support in the future.  Please only help us if you can afford to.  There is no pressure, you will still receive the same level of help as before whether you donate or not.

Thank you all for supporting us so far, we really appreciate it.  There are now more than 1100 families that have used bottled Up over the last year, almost 3 per day joining up to either the family or the drinker area.  And we know that this is only a tiny fraction of those who need help.  So if you can please help us to help you and to help them!