“Go down the educational route to show people what symptoms of spiking look like.”
Love Island’s Sharon Gaffka is turning her focus to advocating for education around drink spiking after becoming a victim of the crime herself.
The 26-year-old previously revealed she was found unconscious in a nightclub toilet cubicle in 2020.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Thursday, she said she was dismissed as “being too drunk” on the night, as opposed to having been the victim of spiking.
She is now taking part in the Stamp Out Spiking campaign and is calling for better education on the topic.
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.
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Recounting the events of that night, Sharon explained:
“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.”
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 thinks educating people from a young age on what the symptoms of spiking look like is essential, as they are different from the effects of alcohol.
Founder of the Stamp Out Spiking campaign Dawn Dines, who appeared alongside Sharon on the show, clarified that there is a “complete difference” between the feeling that alcohol induces and having a drink spiked.
“It is just this myth that people say, ‘oh you’ve had too much to drink’, when that’s not actually the case,” she said.
An Exeter nightclub recently became the first UK venue to be classed as Drink Spiking Aware accredited thanks to training by the campaign.
