IT IS not every day you get to have breakfast with one of the world’s most powerful men.

But Hampshire resident Graham Giles flew out to Washington DC for a two-hour breakfast with President Barack Obama.

Dr Giles, a former pupil at the former Bellemoor School and Richard Taunton College in Southampton, was invited to participate in the Presidential Prayer Breakfast with one of his former students Dorin Muresan, deputy general director of the Romanian Penitentiary Administration.

The director of the Hampshire-based charity Europe to Europe supported dissidents and prisoners of conscience behind the Iron Curtain before the collapse of totalitarian regimes in 1989 and has been actively engaged in social, economic and political development in Britain and Europe for 30 years.

He was invited as a result of pioneering drug detoxification programmes he piloted in Tennessee and East Kentucky, which has seen him since work with a team of scientists to develop a breakthrough British treatment device called Subtle Pulse Electro-biological Recovery Apparatus (SPERA).

Each year the President and members of the US Congress join other government officials and leaders throughout the United States, with representatives from countries across the world to build relationships and deepen international ties. The event was even attended by the Dalai Lama.

Dr Giles said: “The President’s speech was exceptional, and mostly spontaneous, what an exceptional orator he is.

“Even with so many international guests he was informal, good humoured and relaxed. When the microphone stand needed adjusting for the master of ceremonies Obama got up with a smile and fixed it himself!

“I think we’re on the brink of launching a standard treatment for drug detox which can really be a game-changer in scale and scope.

“We believe it will also offer new hope to many suffering with chronic pain and traumatic stress.

"I hope some significant friends in the United States recognise that political, economic and social development must grow together.

"They’ve been watching our European progress in justice reforms and innovative ways of dealing with the plague of drug abuse.

“I hope my visit to DC in February will open doors for new collaboration with those who have influence to make good things happen there and here.”