Trey Helten, advocate for drug users in Vancouver, dead at 42 [Video]

Trey Helten, a prominent advocate for drug users and those experiencing homelessness in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, has died at the age of 42, according to friends and colleagues. 

Sarah Blyth, a friend of Helten’s and the executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), where he worked, said his life mission was to help people. 

“There was really no one like him and I don’t think there will ever be another person like him,” Blyth said Thursday morning on CBC’s The Early Edition. 

She said Helten started working with the OPS in 2017 as a volunteer and worked his way up the organization, eventually becoming the general manager of the overdose prevention site. 

“He came in and just said, ‘I want to be part of the solution, I want to help people,'” said Blyth. 

Helten went above and beyond to help those struggling around him, said Blyth, driving people places, visiting people at …