Joelle Tomlinson shares story of losing brother to fentanyl

Fentanylhasdominated recent headlines for bothits potency and tendency to take lives.

InFebruary,it becameJoelleTomlinson'sstory. The Saskatoon Global Newsreporter lost her brother, Stefan,to the drug.

"He was partying and he ... [took] what he thought was an OxyContin tablet," Tomlinson explained during an interview on Saskatoon Morning. "He went to bed and he didn't wake up."

After discussing it with her family, Tomlinson decided to share her brother's story by producing a news piece for Global.

"Seeing what I do for a living, I know how important it is to get it out there," said Tomlinson. "We thought if this can save one life ... or if it can just raise some awareness among parents then it's worth it."

More used to telling the stories of others, Tomlinson said working on the story has been a challenge, especially given the difficult subject matter.

"This has probably most trying thing I've ever done," she said. "It's a unique situation being on both ends of it."

Tomlinsondescribes her brother as 'fun and bubbly' and as someone who 'took a wrong path' and that her family thinks about the man he could have become iffentanylhadn't taken his life.

"He wasn't there yet, but he was getting there."