The Sinclair Method – Progress in the UK
In early October 2024, I was approached by Dr Roy Eskapa – author of The Cure For Alcoholism – to provide a written account of how The SInclair Method has been advanced in the UK. This was to be included in the 3rd revision of his book, planned for publication in 2025.
Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances, the 3rd revision of The Cure For Alcoholism has been cancelled.
Instead, Roy has requested that the piece be presented on our website.
The article that was to be published in the book, is now included in its entirety below.
THE SINCLAIR METHOD – PROGRESS IN THE UK
Joanna Duyvenvoorde S.A.C., Dip – Director, Sinclair Method UK Ltd
Dr S J Merron MBChB, MRCGP, DRCOG, Dip.Med.Ed
October 2024
A great deal of work has been done over the past decade to raise awareness of The Sinclair Method within the UK. It’s been a difficult journey at times, but the overriding objective of ensuring Dr Sinclair’s work does not fade away into obscurity has been at the forefront of our minds at all times.
UK regulations differ from those in the US in many respects: everything from the advertising of prescription-only medications to the public (which is prohibited in the UK) to the difficulties of both understanding and trying to navigate through the complexities of raising awareness of The Sinclair Method within the country’s National Health Service (NHS).
This is the story of how we overcame these issues and are now at the point of ever-increasing public awareness of this life-saving treatment in the UK…
The Beginning
Gary Bell, featured in the One Little Pill documentary, was the first person to create a website dedicated to TSM. Soon after doing so, he opted to hand the reins of this website over to myself, and – once I had learned more about websites – I chose to rebrand the website as C3 Europe. This was necessary as, unbeknown to Gary, it was illegal to have the name of a prescription-only medication in the website name and URL. Discussions with Claudia Christian followed and, on learning that a UK charity could be set up with the aim of both raising awareness and helping others (mirroring C Three Foundation in the US in many ways), we set about founding the C3 Foundation Europe charity. Though small in scale, this meant our work could truly begin in earnest and positive momentum began to build!
In 2019, C3 Foundation Europe achieved national recognition when we were declared the winner of that year’s Health & Social Care Award, by the UK’s leading ‘for-charity’ organisation, Charity Today. This was a turning point for us, helping us to secure a National Lottery grant and opening doors that would previously have been closed.
We began to speak with other healthcare organisations with a view to making The Sinclair Method a more accepted treatment. We asked questions of the government of the time in Parliament. Sadly, this was when I found out just how unrewarding an experience it could be, trying to lobby the government as a lone voice, and it was quite soul-destroying to have so much work quickly disregarded by the then Health Secretary. I realised that if the manufacturer of Nalmefene (Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals) had been unable to gain more traction with the release of Nalmefene on the NHS, then my solo efforts were clearly doomed to fail!
(For information on the launch failure of Nalmefene on the NHS, please read the Foreword of this NHS-funded report)
Work with one particular healthcare provider continued in the background meanwhile, and Sinclair Method UK Limited was incorporated to enable us to work alongside this particular organisation.
In early 2020, when the impact of the pandemic began to be felt in the UK, and like a lot of other smaller charities, we lost the small amount of funding we were receiving. A decision on the future of the charity had to be made, and it was ultimately decided to close the charity and focus on Sinclair Method UK Ltd.
The pandemic created a massive increase in the demand for mental health service providers in the UK. The organisation we were working with found themselves inundated with NHS mental health patients, and the building of their addiction service – which will, ultimately, include The Sinclair Method – was temporarily postponed until after the pandemic-related demand on their services eased. Regrettably, to date, that demand has still not eased and, as a result, there is still no expected date on which they will be able to resume setting up their addiction services.
Partnerships
Our company’s professional relationship with Dr Janey Merron began in 2018, when she and Sinclair Method UK Ltd began working hand in hand to build our own service, forging a partnership to provide The Sinclair Method on a private basis. The need for a partnership with a pharmacy came next, so I contacted a pharmacy in my hometown to dispense Dr Merron’s Naltrexone and Nalmefene prescriptions worldwide, enabling us to provide The Sinclair Method as far afield as Dubai, Australia, New Zealand and China, in addition to much of Europe. We were even able to reach countries where naltrexone was not a medication approved for use!
We have continued to provide this service, improving and adapting as we go, and have seen it go from strength to strength. As we grew to meet the ever-increasing demand, Dr Rachael Jolley and Dr Wisam Tatari joined us and began issuing prescriptions, and we now partner not only with the Drugs4Delivery pharmacy, but also with MyPrivatePharmacist in London and McKay Pharmacy in Belfast. Most recently, we were honoured to welcome Yale University-trained Professor Susannah Hart onboard. Professor Hart is currently working on writing TSM-related position papers for submission to some of the world’s leading medical publications.
Press and News Coverage
2024 brought an exhilarating breakthrough in awareness of TSM and Sinclair Method UK Ltd. A front-page article in The Times about The Sinclair Method in general – and, Sinclair Method UK Ltd in particular – in one of the UK’s national newspapers brought thousands of new enquiries. This was thousands of people learning about The Sinclair Method for the first time in what was surely the biggest awareness-raising event ever seen in the UK to date!
These enquiries came primarily from the demographic of over-50’s drinking a bottle of wine a night – almost the precise demographic that Nalmefene was expected to reach when approved in late 2013. We will always be grateful for the bravery of the reporter, Esther Walker, who opened up about her own drinking and her desire to simply regain control and drink less. We were later informed by Esther that the article had been a once-in-a-lifetime article for her, and that it featured in the top 10 read articles featured in The Times for 2024, reportedly being viewed several million times.
A few months later, a second article featuring another reporter using our TSM service was published in another national newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.
A third national newspaper article is hopefully just weeks away and will further boost awareness of The Sinclair Method within the public domain. (Addition: since the time of writing, articles have followed in the Daily Mail, The Independent and The Sun, in addition to a discussion on the ITV show Loose Women and on breakfast news.)
Social Responsibility
Although we are currently only able to offer The Sinclair Method privately, we have not forgotten our roots as a charitable organisation, and we take social responsibility and charitable giving very seriously. Sinclair Method UK Ltd has been the main sponsor of the UK’s national Charity Week every December since 2021, and, since 2023, we have been the main partner of the national Charity Today Awards. We reward volunteers with hampers every December as part of the UK Charity Week campaign, and donate to a number of other small charities, too.
And, Into The Future…
As we head towards 2025, there is still much to be done and our dream of having The Sinclair Method available on the NHS as a treatment in its own right will, hopefully, become a reality by the end of the decade.
Until then, we move forward with a real sense of achievement. 10 years of hard work and a determination not to give up have resulted in Sinclair Method UK Ltd now holding a leading and respected position in the field – something which will continue to serve us well and help us achieve our goals in the future.
For further information on The Sinclair Method in the UK, please go to Sinclair Method UK Ltd www.SinclairMethodUK.com
(Reproduced with kind permission of Dr Roy Eskapa, PhD.)
