After playing basketball at a high level with names such as Andrew Gaze, and being an incredibly fit and healthy young man with a happy-go-lucky attitude, addiction took over Jack’s life. His personality, attitude and outlook were altered entirely.

Over many years, Jack used daily, cocktailing intravenous ice use with an array of prescription medication, marijuana and alcohol. This lead Jack to psychosis, suicide attempts, overdoses, homelessness, abuse, crime, broken relationships, malnutrition, family destruction and bitter regret.

After having his life flash before his eyes whilst looking in the mirror, Jack checked in for treatment at 196cm (6’5ft), weighing only 64kg. He had attempted suicide only two weeks earlier and was suffering from the lingering effects of psychosis. Substances and addiction ripped away Jack’s health, integrity and spirit from underneath him, robbing his parents of a son and his brother of a role model.

From these experiences, Jack is dedicated to using the destruction of his past as his greatest asset to give the hope of freedom to those suffering from addiction and educating the community about the sometimes confronting and shattering reality of addiction.

Currently, Jack is the Director and Founder of the With-In Collective, which houses a number of brands in the alcohol and drug space, one of which includes Connection Based Living.

Jack has worked on the frontline as a counselor in a number of different settings, including rehab, for 8 + years and, due to his advocacy, he has appeared on all major national media outlets commenting on contemporary alcohol and drug issues.

For the past 8 + years,  jack has been a part of various government and research bodies, such as the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ANACAD), and has been involved with a number of research projects, including being published as an author on the paper: “A Web-Based Toolkit to Provide Evidence-Based Resources About Crystal Methamphetamine for the Australian Community: Collaborative Development of Cracks in the Ice”.

Jack is also an active member of the National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (NCCRED) National methamphetamine and emerging drugs clinical research network (NCRN). 

Despite all of this work in various areas, Jack's passion and fulfillment lies with helping people to transform their lives out of addiction.