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| For a moment Sean Conlon was startled by the down-and-out who rushed to greet him as he stepped from his limo outside an exclusive nightclub. He glanced at the grubby clothes and the pale, sunken face, and then realisation dawned...he was looking at the brother he hadn't seen for months. They were an unlikely sight, embracing in the street - the millionaire star of the chart-topping band 5ive and the unkempt figure of his elder brother Dominic, who begs for a living. At 19, Sean has already achieved success beyond his dreams, so he is desperately sad to see Dominic, 28, suffering a nightmare of heroin addiction and poverty. "My ultimate hope is for him to be clean, smartly dressed, smiling, happy and involved in music, because that's what he truly loves," says Sean. Message He has clearly thought a lot about Dominic since that meeting a month ago, and delivers a touching message to him today. He says: "I love you, and your family loves you. We miss you and all want to see you clean. Then the world would be your oyster." Sean, who has a �3million fortune, says he dare not shower his brother with money in case he spends it on drugs. Dominic's addiction to crack cocaine and heroin is so strong that he has admitted he will probably even spend part of Christmas Day begging for money to fuel his habit. Singer-songwriter Sean says: "If he was clean I would work miracles for him and do whatever I could to help him. I would get him a flat and take him into the studio with me and try to set him up as a DJ." Sean, who lives in a Surrey mansion with bandmate Jason Brown known as J, is distraught to think that his brother will be sharing a meal with other drug addicts and the homeless on Christmas Day. Although the brothers were close when they grew up on the rough King George Avenue council estate in Horsforth, near Leeds, their lives now are worlds apart. Sean is known to millions around the world as a member of the chart-topping boy band who have scored a string of Top 10 hits, including Keep On Moving and Queen cover, We Will Rock You. 5ive are currently playing to full houses up and down the country during a sell-out tour...although J and band mate Ritchie Neville landed in trouble of their own last week when they appeared in a Dublin court following a bar brawl. Sean travels in style, staying in plush hotels. In stark contrast, Dominic spends most evenings injecting himself with heroin in the dark alleys that surround the grim hostel in London's Covent Garden where he lives. Dominic also uses crack cocaine, which he smokes to counter the depression of coming down from heroin. He spends �40 a day buying just under a gram of heroin and �30 a day on crack cocaine rocks. He takes the drugs with other residents of his hostel, or sometimes on his own in his lonely bedsit-style room. But despite Dominic's addiction, Sean feels more optimistic about the future since their chance meeting outside London club The End. |
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