STILL STANDING - GEORGE CHUVALO'S STRAIGHT-FROM-THE-HEART ANTI-DRUG TALK HITS HOME

From the lofty heights of being on the top 10 in the boxing world to the devastating lows that came from losing a wife and three sons to drugs, George Chuvalo has seen it all - and where such tragedy would have knocked the punch out of many people, George Chuvalo is still standing.

"Still Standing" is the name of Chuvalo's anti-drug presentation, a factual, heartbreaking, lay-it-on-the-line story that pays tribute to his wife and sons, and cautions teens against the dangers inherent in smoking, drinking and drugs.

Students from the White Bear First Nations, Pheasant Rump First Nations and Ocean Man First Nations were present April 21 to hear Chuvalo speak at the White Bear Education Complex.

With the exception of a few teachers, most of the people there had never heard of Chuvalo, who retired in 1979 after fighting such legends as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Smokin' Joe Frazier.

But they know him now.  And they won't likely forget.

After his introduction, Chuvalo left the room while students watched a 20 minute documentary produced by CBC's investigative show "The Fifth Estate", which documents Chuvalo's rise as a professional heavyweight boxer, and his descent into a personal hell with the tragic deaths of his two sons, Jesse and Georgie Lee, and his first wife Lynne.

Only near the end of the video, when his third drug-addicted son Steven is shown onscreen in jail, talking about his hopes for the future, did Chuvalo step back into the room.

Hearing Steven's voice, and seeing him onscreen gets Chuvalo into what he describes as the "funk" needed to get him through the presentation.  That "funk" comes from the fact that even as the family's problems were recognized on screen, its relentless progression toward tragedy continued.

Steven died nine months after the video was produced, an unlit cigarette between his fingers and a heroin needle sticking from his arm.

In a way, Chuvalo's recounting of the story is almost as painful as the story itself.  Rocking back and forth, fidgeting with the microphone cord, Chuvalo seems to withdraw into himself as he gazes out above the audience, drawn again and again into a past full of unspeakable pain.

He is a parent who has lost three of five children, a husband whose wife could not live with the tragedy, and a man who asks himself again and again what he could have done to prevent it all.

The six-foot former Canadian champion recounted the seeming innocence of the act that got his first son addicted to drugs.  After a motorcycle accident, his son Jesse accepted some drugs from a "friend", which led to an addiction, and to his death.

One day in 1985, about nine months after that first ingestion of drugs, Jesse walked to his bedroom in the Chuvalo home, put the barrel of a 20 calibre gun into his mouth, and pulled the trigger.  He was 20 years old.

"He sealed not only his fate, but that of two of his brothers and his mother," Chuvalo said.

Jesse's two brothers were also addicted by the time of his death, and so strong was the pull of drugs that they were powerless to change that.  Chuvalo said that in his heart, he knew it was not a matter of whether, but of when he would lose another son to drugs.  Despite that constant fear, he spent the next years rescuing his sons from overdoses, bailing them out of jail after a series of botched robberies for money and drugs, and trying to understand why it was happening.

He gave the students at White Bear a grim, stark view on the life of an addict, describing the insanity of his sons' actions as they committed crime after crime to obtain elusive highs.  He pulled no punches in describing the pain, the shame and the humiliation a drug addict and his family undergoes.

In a halting, anguished voice he outlined in graphic and ugly detail the grip that heroin had on his sons.  He said that when they craved the drug, even the sight of it would cause them to lose bowel control.  Only after they purchased and used the drug would they be able to think clearly enough to clean themselves up.

"Every time I tell that story, I feel sick to my stomach.  It hurts me to talk about my sons that way, my beautiful sons.  But I think that if they were here, they would want to tell you what it's like to be a dope fiend.  It's a very apt name, 'dope fiend' - because that's what you are if you take drugs - a fiend.  The drugs make you do things you'd never think of doing otherwise," he said.

Chuvalo recounted his anguish at having to revive his sons time and again from deadly overdoses.  At one point, Steven overdosed 15 times during a two month period.

Eight years after Jesse's demise, Georgie Lee finally obtained "the ultimate high", and was found dead of a heroin overdose.

Two days after the funeral, Chuvalo's wife Lynne found a permanent way to cope with the grief, swallowing a lethal mixture of prescription drugs she'd confiscated from the boys' previous drug heists.  She lay down on Georgie Lee's bed, and died.

"I can understand her decision to do that now," he said.

"She couldn't live with the grief of losing two sons.  I think maybe, in some ways, it's harder on a mother than on a father, to lose a child.  A mother has that nine month headstart on love."

Steven's chain of robberies continued, and he was put in jail to serve a lengthy sentence.  At the time the Fifth Estate program was filmed, Steven and his father were planning to travel across the country to take their story on the road, to campaign against drug use.  Sadly, the addiction proved stronger than Steven's free will.  Nine months and 15 days after the Fifth Estate tape aired, Steven took his final overdose in his sister's empty apartment.

In honour of Steven and Jesse and Georgie Lee and Lynne, Chuvalo has continued with his plan of campaigning against drugs.  He has visited over 300 schools, and in 1998 was presented with the Order of Canada for his dedication to youth.  Chuvalo has a website dedicated to his anti-drug campaign, located at www.fightagainstdrugs.ca.

One of the factors that leads to drug addiction, Chuvalo is convinced, is the way that society glamourizes smoking and drinking.  He said that when he visits young offenders' prison facilities, almost every prisoner there smokes.  Conversely, he said, students who have demonstrable love and family support, and who take on responsibility for themselves and their actions do not smoke.

He stressed the importance of developing a healthy sense of self-esteem, which is needed in order to counteract peer pressure to experiment with substances - and he said that self-esteem stems from one place - the family.

Chuvalo said that a sense of love is the only thing that has kept him going.

"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't say 'I love you' to my [living] children and grandchildren.  They tell me they love me, too, and that is what has helped me through this.

"Every living person needs love.  It makes you feel strong, secure and appreciated.  When you feel strong, secure, appreciated and important you can deal with the difficult parts of your life.  The most important three words in life are 'I love you'.  Say those three words to your family, not just today, not just tomorrow, but every day of your life," he urged.

"Do the best with your life that you can.  Explore your full potential.  You deserve that, and you can't do it by doing drugs and alcohol.  The strength of your family ties will get you through.

"This is the most important time in your lives.  This is the time when you make decisions about what your future is going to be like.  One day, all you beautiful young people are going to be just like me, parents and grandparents.  You're responsible for the children you'll have someday, and those children's children.  You owe it to them to do your best."

Students at White Bear that day left with a powerful message to consider.

And Chuvalo himself?

He left knowing he's done what he could to make a positive difference in their lives.  For Chuvalo, the fighter, the father, the activist, the fight never ends.