Former Addict and His Wife Have Prevented Hundreds of Fatal ODs by Going to Music Festivals — Here’s How (Exclusive)

"We’re trying to do is prevent those tragedies from happening in other people’s lives," William Perry tells PEOPLE

After seven years spent in an Ohio prison for possession of a stolen car and burglary, William Perry — who started using heroin at 14 — realized he needed a new start in life.

And after watching two friends die from drug overdoses, he was determined to turn his pain into something positive. All he had to do was to figure out how.

"Prison is a miserable place," says Perry, who began working on a college degree in social services while behind bars — and got sober. "Some people get locked up, others get saved. I got saved."

Now, nearly four years after his release from prison, Perry, 39, has found a rewarding way to help others by preventing deaths from accidental overdoses amid the nation's opioid epidemic.

Related: Inside Mom’s Heartbreak After 19-Year-Old Son Dies of Apparent Fentanyl Overdose: 'He Was Just a Baby'

As the number of deaths from drugs such as fentanyl, heroin, morphine and oxycodone continues to climb, Perry and his wife, Ingela Travers-Hayward, 38, travel from their home in Columbus, Ohio, to dozens of music festivals every year to hand out free doses of naloxone, a fast-acting overdose reversal medication, while educating concertgoers about the dangers of fentanyl-tainted recreational drugs.

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Since 2022 the couple have gone to Bonnaroo, Burning Man, Lollapalooza and more festivals, where, alongside other volunteers, they’ve distributed 60,000 easy-to-use doses of the medication.

“We’ve gotten reports that the kits we’ve given out have been used for more than 300 overdose reversals,” says Perry. “It’s hard not to think, ‘Holy smokes, us showing up at a music festival means that someone’s life has been saved.’ That feels really cool.”

Drugs became a way of life for Perry at an early age, he says, to cope with his tumultuous childhood in a broken home in Columbus. “I just got deeper and deeper into addiction,” he says. “In the two years before my arrest, I was homeless, living on the streets, isolated from everyone who actually cared for me.”

But during his stint in prison, he got his life back on track and began counseling other addicts. He also met his future wife there when Travers-Hayward, an Emmy-winning TV producer from New York City, interviewed him for a documentary she was making about COVID in prisons in 2020.

After Perry’s release in 2021, the couple married and moved in together in Columbus. “We both really clicked on the idea of want-ing to help people in a massive way,” recalls Travers-Hayward.Before long, they launched their nonprofit This Must Be the Place, named after a Talking Heads love song, and convinced festival organizers to let them distribute anti-overdose medication donated by Hikma Pharmaceuticals.

Related: Couple Shares Before and After Photos From Meth Addiction: 'It Is Possible to Recover'

Their concept proved to be wildly effective. “At Lollapalooza last year,” says Perry, “the line in front of our booth was longer than the beer lines.” Concertgoers who obtain naloxone often carry it in their backpacks or purses as they would a first-aid kit.

“I remember thinking, ‘I don’t need this. I don’t hang out with people who do those kinds of drugs,’ ” says S.J. Smith, 39, who in November 2023 helped revive an unconscious man with a dose of naloxone that This Must Be the Place gave her two years earlier. “The whole experience was pretty traumatic. What’s important is that I helped save a life.”

This year Perry and Travers-Hayward plan to expand their efforts, hitting 36 festivals, as well as 40 smaller events, to hand out an additional 50,000 doses of naloxone.

Related: Reps 4 Recovery: Why a Former Addict Opened a Gym to Help Others Stay Sober

And they know they have more work cut out for them: In 2022 more than 110,000people died from overdoses in the U.S., with nearly 70% of the deaths caused by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I’ve seen a lot of that in my life,” says Perry. “What we’re trying to do is prevent those tragedies from happening in other people’s lives.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

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