5B NDUMI'S SAGA - DAY 04 SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Our journey with Ndumi’s saga began just last Monday, during Bet You Can’t Find, when she shared what she calls one of the biggest mistakes she ever made. She told us how she moved out of home to be with a man she had met just a week earlier; someone she’d encountered at the bar where she worked. What she didn’t know then was that he was homeless. And very quickly, so was she. What was meant to be a fresh start turned into survival mode. Ndumi stayed in that situation for two years; navigating instability, fear, and the quiet weight of regret, far away from the safety she had walked away from. Yesterday, in Part 5 of Ndumi’s Saga, we heard what life really looked like once the doors closed; living in an abandoned house with her new boyfriend, navigating instability, fear, and a daily reality that was far removed from the life she had left behind. Today, we move into Part 6: Relationship with Substances - a chapter that unpacks how coping turned into dependency, and how substances slowly be- came part of survival, escape, and routine. This is not about shock value. It’s about understanding how vulnerable moments, unresolved trauma, and isolation can blur lines and reshape choices. Ndumi shares this part of her story not to justify what happened, but to tell the truth; in the hope that someone listening recognises themselves, or realises they’re not alone.