The big stories of 2016: Reporter Blair Crawford on the inspiring story of Monica Higgins

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Citizen report Blair Crawford was inspired by the story of Monica Higgins. Higgins overcame an addiction to crack cocaine and went back to adult high school. Just shy of her 4oth birthday she graduated at the top of her class.

A thousand students attend St. Nick’s at its two Ottawa campuses, but few have a story as harrowing as Higgins’s. Her mother was an addict and Higgins had a daughter at age 17, which she gave up for adoption. Bullied in high school, Higgins dropped out and ended up on the streets of Toronto, spending time in jail, hospitals and treatment centres.

Read her story


Monica Higgins is graduating from St. Nicholas Adult High School Thursday. She went back to high school after a life of addiction and living on the streets in Toronto.

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