White Horse Recovery Coach Nick Hanks and his wife, Stephanie
Originally from Laconia and the youngest of four children, Hanks played sports, performed in theatre, and sang in choir. Then, at 16, his stepfather died of a heart attack in front of him. “My drinking career started the next day,” he said.
As a new Recovery Coach at White Horse Recovery, Hanks is helping to build a platform for prevention, education, and peer support in Mount Washington Valley. “I want to help people,” he said. “I want to get into schools and teach kids about the dangers of alcohol. I did not have that growing up.”
Expelled from high school his senior year due to his drinking, he became a father at age 19 of premature twins who spent six months in Maine Medical Center. Over more than two decades of addiction, he lost two marriages, jobs, and relationships with his children.
On his worst days, he drank an 18-pack of 24-ounce beers and a pint of liquor a day. He drank on the way to work. He drank at work.
“In school, no one talked about alcohol,” he said. “I did not have that education. I did not have anyone in front of me who had been through it.”
As his condition deteriorated, doctors asked him during a transplant interview in the fall of 2023 what he would do with a new liver if he received one. The question stopped him cold.
“There was no right or wrong answer,” he said. “I had to think. I decided I wanted to help people.”
His desire to help, however, was contingent on receiving a new liver, which was not a given. In fact, his mother and girlfriend had already been told to prepare for his passing.
On November 12, 2023, however, Hanks underwent liver transplant surgery, within a week of what doctors believed would be the end of his life. “I got on the transplant list Wednesday night, and then Friday I was offered a liver,” he said.
Recovery from the transplant was “brutal,” as he dropped from 275 to 144 pounds, contracted pneumonia, and required surgery after a lung collapse. He kept going, however, attending AA, working with a sponsor, and meeting regularly with a therapist, who first mentioned White Horse Recovery.
“I was honored to be interviewed for this job,” said Hanks. “I had spent most of my life not in the professional world.”
“We are launching a school-based support initiative across our service areas,” said Matthew Plache, executive director.
The initiative will be staffed by a team of White Horse professionals, including Hanks, whom Plache described as “incredibly dedicated to helping others, especially youth.” “His perspective on his lived experience will inspire and change lives—and if we are able to shift people’s relationship with substances while they are still young, it could help them step off the path to addiction before suffering devastating consequences.”
In his first week at White Horse, Hanks’ story has already helped move a local woman into a seven-day detox and a 28-day treatment program after she met with him.
“I told her, ‘This will kill you,’” Hanks said. “I asked her, ‘Do you want to be a memory, or do you want to be present?’”
Currently, Hanks is completing SMART Recovery facilitator training, beginning coursework toward his Certified Recovery Support Worker (CRSW) credential, and he will receive his high school diploma in June. “If this program can be what I did not have,” he said, “that is everything.”
With locations in Ossipee, North Conway, Berlin, and Littleton, White Horse provides outpatient mental health and addiction counseling, peer recovery support, wellness education, and prevention programming.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone. White Horse Recovery offers services for those ready to start their journey to recovery. For more information, call 603-651-1441, Ext. 1.