In 2018, Antonio Iozzo, the CEO and visionary leader of Alpha Insure, Africa’s leading independently-owned Cell Captive UMA, has a near-death accident when he comes off his Ducati Panigale superbike at breakneck speed, racing around Cape Town’s notoriously dangerous Killarney Motor Raceway. Despite sustaining significant injuries, including a shattered T7 vertebra, 14 broken ribs, and punctured lungs, medical professionals are amazed that Antonio has not been left paralysed.
Antonio undergoes a series of operations in both South Africa and the United States. Throughout his ordeal, he’s prescribed O**Norm, an o*i**d painkiller commonly known as O** in the US, where it’s been linked to millions of overdose-related deaths. No one in the medical fraternity warns Antonio of its highly addictive nature, and so his five-year addiction nightmare unfolds.
While managing a R600 million building project, launching a cutting-edge 5,000m² health and wellness facility, and overseeing his billion-rand insurance enterprise, this highly driven businessman grapples with a dual existence. His once magnificent life, built from rags to riches, begins to unravel. He consumes copious amounts of O** to manage his debilitating back pain, alternating it with even more addictive S*b*x*ne to withdraw.
As he expands his multibillion-rand business empire, Antonio finds it increasingly challenging to conceal his inner turmoil. He becomes fixated on the clock, obsessed with when he can take his next fix.
Finally, in a mammoth surge of determination and willpower, Antonio goes to battle with the o*i**d dragon, resolved to wean himself off every last milligram of the drug.
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