I took 72 Nurofen Plus pills and I'm lucky to be alive

Former addict Mark calls for crackdown on over-counter medicines containing codeine

- BY CIARA O'LOUGHLIN

A FORMER addict who was told by doctors he's lucky to be alive after taking 72 tablets of Nurofen Plus is calling for stricter laws on medicines containing codeine.

Mark Fearon, 47, is eight months clean after a three-year addiction to the over-the-counter painkillers that almost took his life.

Nurofen Plus contains both ibuprofen and codeine. While these tablets can be bought without a prescription in Ireland, medical advice is they shouldn't be taken for more than three days.

But Mark, from Stepaside, South Dublin, travelled around the capital to different pharmacies to get his fix and even hobbled into stores to illustrate his pain to chemists.

It all began to alleviate lower back pain that he suffered all his adult life, but it slowly crept into an addiction that took hold of his life.

PAIN

He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: "I underestimated the power of Nurofen Plus. I said I'd stay on them until the pain was gone.

"At six months I said, 'Why am I still taking these? The pain is long gone. By six months I was up to a pack a day."