A charity which provides support to hundreds of drug addicts and their families has had its future secured for the next five years after being awarded a vital £350,000 grant.

One North East (1NE), in The Broadway, Woodford Green, scooped the cash from the Big Lottery fund to help with its work with substance abusers in Redbridge, Waltham Forest and the wider east London area.

The abstinence-based service, which helps around 100 alcoholics and drug addicts each year, offers counselling, leisure activities and other support to sufferers and their loved ones.

But it has faced years of financial uncertainty, having previously been forced from Waltham Forest in 2008 after the council there decided not to renew its main contract, despite it being based for more than 20 years there.

It has managed to keep going since then with a lower amount of funding from Redbridge Council and other Lottery grants, but faced another setback in 2010 when Waltham Forest Council decided not to renew a separate but linked contract for its relatives support service.

1NE's business manager Fiona Dunwoodie was one of several staff who have worked at the service for a year without pay due to the uncertainty over its financial future.

She said: “It is wonderful that we're now secure until 2018. The money is going to make a really big impact on so many people's lives.

“It is estimated that for every addict there are six other people who are immediately affected. Addiction has a high impact on a person's loved ones, so it's very important they are all given help to try and cope with it together.

“Often the families we help are in a worse condition than the addicts because they don't have the cushion of drugs or alcohol, and there's a lot of sense of shame surrounding addiction for some people”.

1NE's clinical manager Jo Blackledge said she was also delighted.

She added: “We often find that, if a family member enters counselling themselves, even if the person who misuses substances is not in treatment, it has a knock on effect on that person also encouraging them to look for personal help."

Chingford and Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith, who is a patron of the charity, visited the centre on Friday as part of its celebrations for getting the grant.

He said: “I am delighted that 1NE has been awarded this grant.

"They are a remarkable organisation which helps to re-build many lives in my constituency and which has an excellent track record.

"I wish them every success in the future and I look forward to my continued involvement as Patron.”