Former Meth-Addicted Couple Share Before & After Photos Showing How Far They Came, Inspire Others to Quit

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Brent Walker and his wife, Ashley, of Cleveland, Tennessee, celebrated three years of sobriety from meth addiction, for the Walkers had spent a good part of their lives dealing with substance abuse, addiction to alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and most seriously meth.

The milestone gives them hope, which they wanted to share with others. “There’s hope. You don’t have to live that life forever,” Brent Walker told Inside Edition

Posting pictures before and after their meth addiction under #Cleanchallenge, the Walkers were stunned when they went viral, garnering almost 270,000 likes and 212,000 shares. “I want to tell people they don’t have to live like this. We are living proof,” Brent told the BBC.

Clearly, the Walkers’ message that “it is possible to recover” has resonated with many people across the country and around the world.

Before the Walkers managed to kick their meth habit, life was grim. Brent’s struggle with addiction goes all the way back to when he was 9 years old, with cigarettes—which he stole from his parents. Then it progressed to marijuana, acid, and ecstasy in his teens. As a young adult, he became a drug dealer and lost his brother, Jess Marshall, who died at just 19 years old while driving intoxicated.

“That’s when I tried meth for the first time and it just pushed me further into my addiction,” Brent explained. “I didn’t know how to deal with it at the time. I was real young.”

In 2010, he met Ashley when he became her marijuana dealer. The two became friends at first then became romantically involved—even as Brent’s life was spiraling out of control, landing him in jail on multiple occasions.

During Brent’s struggle with meth, as his life was being destroyed by the substance, the allure of the money he was making dealing drugs was too great to get out of that lifestyle. “I sold big amounts so I always had thousands of dollars in my pocket and thought I was living the life,” he told Good Morning America.

Despite Brent’s unwillingness and inability to quit, Ashley never gave up on him and the prospect of a clean life together.

“I always told him I see something different in him, and I want to have that long lasting relationship with him,” she said. “I always wanted to be sober with him, have a family, have a life with him.”

The turning point came when Brent Walker was released from prison on probation on the condition that he stay clean.

Barely passing a mandatory drug test that was part of his parole, Brent realized he had to make a choice between prison and a new life without drugs. “I asked her if she’d quit with me and she said ‘yes, I go wherever you go,’” he said to Knox News. That’s when the Walkers quit cold turkey.

Through their church community and recovery programs it offered, they managed to find a new community to replace their old “friends.” At church, they found “people who really cared for you and not just because you have drugs,” Brent told TODAY.

Meanwhile, their love for each other and desire for a better life also helped keep them clean. “We just fed off each other,” Brent said. “If I was having a bad day and craving she would help talk me out of it and vice versa.”

With a newfound faith and sense of purpose, both Brent and Ashley have been able to turn their lives around. Getting his GED in 2019 was a highlight. Meanwhile, Ashley got certified as a nurse’s assistant. Both of them now work full-time, and in Ashley’s job as a patient technician at the local hospital, she sees people who are still struggling with what she and her husband left behind.

“I work in the ICU at a hospital, and I see overdoses coming in constantly, or people going through withdrawals, and it really breaks my heart knowing that I’m on this side, and knowing they can have a better life,” Ashley confided.

By posting pictures of their new life, the couple have been delighted to get messages from people who have been inspired to quit drugs because of their story. “From the UK to Canada to California to Washington, Africa, Iowa—everywhere tell us that our story has inspired them to check into rehab and get help, and that’s just the most rewarding thing to know,” Brent said to WTVC.