The manager of a "lifeline" rehab centre due to be closed at the end of the month due to council cuts has called on help to save it.

Russell Brand and Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith have both backed the fundraising campaign to raise £160,000 needed to keep the service going at 1NE, in The Broadway, Woodford Green.

Manager Fiona Dunwoodie, who set up the centre in 1987 with her mother, said the centre helps 100 people each year with abstinence based recovery treatment from drink or drug addiction.

Speaking to the Guardian, she said: “We must save this centre because we are the only fully abstinence based treatment available in Redbridge or Waltham Forest.

“You can’t mix the two, you can’t have people not drinking alcohol sitting next to people who had a drink last night, it doesn’t work.

“The new Ilford-based service will not have relative support or children support and no one wants to go to Ilford which has a high volume of drug users, they might bump into old faces.”

Russell Brand visited the centre last month to lend his support to the campaign to save the centre, which is due to close on March 31.

Previously based in Walthamstow, the centre has a success rate of 70 per cent.

Mr Brand has previously spoken out against voting and has called for a revolution to overthrow the establishment.

He said: “It’s essential we save 1NE, which is exactly the kind of place that saved me.

“Small centres like this, run by local people in the heart of their community, are achieving astonishing results and helping addicts to full recovery through abstinence.

“If we don’t Save 1NE, we’re just endorsing the growth of big, corporate organisations that park people on methadone and don’t get to the root of the problem.

“We shouldn’t have to be funding this service ourselves, but it is too important to lose.”

A Redbridge council spokeswoman said that while it was regrettable, the new system would mean more people are treated.

Jackie Dean has been using the service since June 2013 for treatment for her alcoholism.

The 51-year-old, who lives in South Woodford, said the centre's treatment means she is now able to see her son and daughter, 15 and 11, every weekend.

She said: “I am so scared that this centre is going, this centre gives me a consistency and has changed my life around, I am now able to see my kids again.

“I had a tough time recently and feeling really low but I came here and got a huge cuddle from Fiona, there is a compassion here I have never felt anywhere else."

Teresa Reilly, 48, said she was a new person since attending the centre for her alcohol addiction in October last year.

The Barkingside resident said: “This centre saved my life. It is as simple as that. The staff are so kind, I don’t want to have to go to Ilford.

“At one stage I was drinking 100 units a week, so when I joined this service it was like a lifeline for me, giving me structure and purpose."

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