Ice Bath Harry and his partner Felicity launch company to support recovering addicts reunite with children
Harry Beattie and Felicity Ramsey set up 'Little Hands Waiting' to fund drug and alcohol tests for recovering addicts
A couple who have documented their recovery from addiction on social media have launched a new a company to help others in recovery see their children.
Harry Beattie, also known by his social media handle Ice Bath Harry, who is from Portsmouth and lives in Waterlooville, did not see his son, Travis, for five years as a result of his drug and alcohol addictions.
“I tried to get clean for 10 years, trying all sorts of different methods, but I was almost trying too hard for the wrong reasons,” said Harry, who has filmed himself taking an ice bath every day of his recovery journey and posts his journey on social media to hundreds of thousands of followers.
He met his partner Felicity Ramsey while both were in rehab, and despite relapsing after they left, both decided to get clean on the same day in July 2024.
“People will recover when they are ready to recover; it doesn’t matter what they lose or what position they’re in to the outside world, people looking in and going ‘is that not enough yet?’. Sometimes people get clean when it’s just a random Monday and they just think ‘I can’t do this anymore’,” said Felicity.
“On a random Monday, I set the ice bath up in the garden, got in and thought ‘wow, I don' t feel like using today’”, said Harry, who is now more than 740 days clean and sober.
Harry wanted to reconnect with his son Travis after getting clean, and ended up going through the court system.
“The judge said ‘Get to six months clean and you can see your son, but you will need to get a hair strand test’. I remember saying ‘I can’t afford that’,” said Harry.
A segmented follicle hair strand test provides a much more in-depth and accurate measure of sobriety than other ways of testing.
Felicity said: “If you just do a urine test, you can have only been clean for a short period of time, it doesn’t really prove sustained recovery whereas with a hair follicle test you can segment it month to month. It essentially shows the drug coming out of your system and then tapering down to nothing.”
Hair follicle testing can cost up to £1,000, and it is not funded by the courts. “It can be a stumbling block for people in that they are clean, but they can’t prove it, so they still can’t get access to their children,” said Felicity.
Harry said: “This is something that is often overlooked because I think there is a big stigma in society where people go, ‘just get clean and go and get your kids back, what’s so difficult?’ But it actually isn’t that simple. A lot of people in treatment, even if they put the drink and drugs down, they don’t have £1,000.”
So, to combat this issue, Harry and Felicity have decided to set up Little Hands Waiting, a community interest company that will help recovering addicts access funds to carry out hair follicle tests across the country.
“We wanted to set something up that was going to remove that barrier and allow those people the opportunity to reunite with their child,” said Felicity.
“I think in our current economy, very few people have got thousands of pounds readily available, and while absolutely people could save up, in that period of trying to stay clean, the added pressure of saving up while still being estranged from their children can create a worry for relapse, because they are left in limbo.”
Harry said: “It's a lonely place - imagine you have just done six weeks in treatment, you come out, you’re in a one-bed flat on your own, in your own head, in your own thoughts. And for the child too, it's a very painful process for the child to think, if they’re old enough to understand, ‘my parent has been in treatment or in rehab, why can’t they see me, why aren’t they seeing me?’”
The company will also provide support to parents and children who are reuniting after being estranged due to addiction.
“As a part of the CIC, eventually we will be running and leading virtual workshops to help families connect with their children, to have healthy boundaries with their children, and to navigate difficult conversations,” said Felicity.
“It’s all about not just helping them fund the test, but also in repairing that relationship and bonding with their children. We want to try and avoid those generational trauma cycles repeating themselves,” she said.
Multiple companies and organisations have already contacted the pair offering financial support for the new venture, but Harry and Felicity will also be undertaking their own fundraising for the project too.
“I’ve been accepted to do the London Marathon next year, five days after we reach 1,000 days of being clean, so we will be fundraising from that,” said Felicity. “I’ve never done a marathon before, the furthest I have ever run before is 5k!”
Harry will also be fundraising at the end of the year by attempting to break two world records overseas, and will record his journey on social media.
You can find out more about Harry’s ice bath journey here.