Love Island’s Sharon Gaffka On The Need For ‘Better Education’ Surrounding Drink Spiking

 

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Sharon Gaffka stepped into the limelight in the 2021 season of Love Island, but she’s now taking part in the Stamp Out Spiking campaign and calling for better education on the topic of drink spiking – particularly on knowing the symptoms.

After being spiked herself, Sharon is turning her attention to advocating for more education for people from a young age.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Sharon shared her own experience of being spiked, sharing that it was dismissed as being too drunk: “After the first lockdown, I was out with my friends at our favourite restaurant. I had had a couple of drinks celebrating a friend’s birthday.

“Next thing that happened to me was that I was found passed out in a ladies toilet cubicle.

“I didn’t really comprehend it until maybe a day after because I have no recollection of anything apart from being there one minute and waking up in A&E the next.”

A club in Exeter has become the first venue in the UK to be ‘drink spiking aware’ accredited.

Former Love Islander @SharonNJGaffka recalls her experience of drink spiking as she reiterates the importance of speaking out.

Watch GMB 👉 https://t.co/6iQ6ebeOEQ pic.twitter.com/eNIwxTHEc6

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) February 17, 2022

She continued, “I was victim to being cast as being too drunk as opposed to being spiked… I have always advocated for better education around the subject of spiking because there are great things on the market that can deter people, especially with lids on drinks.

“My fear is that they will just move on to a different way of spiking so it won’t just become drink spiking, and we are seeing it more with spiking by injection.”

Sharon was also joined by the founder of the Stamp Out Spiking campaign, Dawn Dines, who clarified on the show that there is a “complete difference” between the feeling of being drunk and the symptoms of being spiked.

She stated: “It is just this myth that people say, ‘oh you’ve had too much to drink’, when that’s not actually the case.”

As part of the campaign, Stamp Out Spiking are training venues in order to become more aware of these situations, the training includes what drink spiking is, what substances are used to spike drinks, the symptoms of drink spiking, and the consequences of drinking spiking on businesses.

• love island
• Sharon Gaffka