ELAINE Eveleigh knows that urging young people not to experiment with drugs probably won’t do any good. But she can’t stop herself from trying.

“They won’t listen to advice, I know,” she said. “But if anyone is thinking of trying drugs, I will say – don’t ever try. Because it will take your life. It will ruin your life.”

Elaine will be spending this Christmas without her son Andy because of drugs.

The 34-year-old flew out to Turkey for what was supposed to be a dream holiday in early March this year.

It was his first trip abroad since he was a little boy, Elaine says – and he was hugely excited.

He sent Elaine video messages from the plane, and said he’d call her when he got to his hotel, the luxury Lake & River Side Hotel in Side, Antalya.

York Press: Andy EveleighAndy Eveleigh (Image: Stephen Lewis)

But he never called. And when she finally got through to Andy’s hotel on the phone the next morning and asked them to check on him, they found Andy lying dead in his room.

A heartbroken Elaine had to fly out to Turkey alone to identify her son’s body, arrange for him to be flown home - and try to find some answers.

She finally got those answers at an inquest earlier this month.

A coroner ruled that Andy’s death was drug-related, as a result of multiple drug use.

Elaine, who lives in New Earswick, accepts her son had a drug problem – including both heroin and cocaine.

He’d battled with it for 12 years, she said – and tried to get clean several times, always without success.

“I’ve tried to stop smoking, and that’s hard enough,” Elaine said. “But drugs…”

Andy probably used drugs just before flying out to Turkey, Elaine accepts.

But she’s convinced that he didn’t take any with him - and that part of his reason for going was to get away for a while from the local drugs scene.

He had big plans for his Turkey holiday, she says.

“He’d bought clothes, and was going to have foam parties, parties on the beach, take videos.”

She’s not naïve – and says she doesn’t believe for a moment that when Andy returned to the UK he’d have been able to stay off drugs.

“They (the dealers) would have been on the phone, saying ‘oh, we’ve got a special offer’, Elaine says. “It’s so hard to get away from that.”

But she strongly believes that it was the damage caused to Andy’s body by 12 years of drug use, not anything he took while in Turkey, that ended his life.

His health was very poor, she says. He couldn’t work, because he was on medication for his back. His legs were swollen – and when he flew to Turkey he was even on antibiotics for blisters on his hands.

She believes in her heart of hearts that he would probably have died anyway – even if he hadn’t gone to Turkey.

Now, she has to face the future without him.

Her son wasn’t a saint, she says.

“But when he was all right, he was a lovely lad. He would give you his last penny. When he had money, he was too soft with it.”

When he was at home, Andy divided his time between his mum’s house and his girlfriend’s.

“I miss him coming round,” Elaine said. “I miss his cheek – I even miss arguing with him!”

She has to find a way to carry on, she says, for the sake of her other son Shaun – Andy’s younger brother; for her two granddaughters by Shaun; and for her mum Jean.

But for this Christmas, at least, she just wants to be on her own.

Jean will stay with Elaine’s sister Denise.

“And I won’t be doing anything at all,” Elaine said. “I don’t even want to cook a Christmas dinner. I just want to be on my own.

“And then it’s Andy’s birthday on January 2. I think then I might go out and have a drink for him.”