Matthew Perry Planned to Launch a Foundation to Help Others Struggling with Substance Abuse Before His Death

Matthew Perry had hoped to continue helping people who suffered from substance abuse before his sudden death.

PEOPLE has learned that the late actor — who died at age 54 on Saturday — was making plans to establish a foundation to help those with addiction issues, a decade after he founded Perry House, a men’s sober living facility which ran for two years.

After the Friends alum’s death, those close to Perry still hope to bring his foundation to fruition in his honor. 

In a 2013 PEOPLE cover story, Perry opened up about his abuse of alcohol and Vicodin, which a doctor had prescribed him after a 1997 jet ski accident.

“I had a big problem with alcohol and pills and I couldn’t stop,” he said. “Eventually things got so bad that I couldn’t hide it, and then everybody knew.”

Then, “something clicked,” and he founded Perry House, a men’s sober living facility which ran from 2013 to 2015 in his old Malibu beach home.

“The interesting reason that I can be so helpful to people now is that I screwed up so often,” he said. “It’s nice for people to see that somebody who once struggled in their life is not struggling any more.”

Back in 2015, Perry was honored for his advocacy by the treatment center Phoenix House, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “You can’t have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect to have it be solved in 28 days.”

Ahead of the release of his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing last year, Perry further detailed his own struggles and revealed that he almost died at 49 due to his escalating drug addiction. He said he spent two weeks in a coma fighting for his life, followed by a five-month hospital stay and a year using a colostomy bag, after his colon burst from opioid overuse.

When Perry was first admitted to the hospital, doctors told his family he had only a "2 percent chance to live."

"I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that," he recalled.

Perry — who went to rehab 15 times over the years and spent a fortune trying to get sober — also recounted a terrifying time during his Friends years when he was popping 55 Vicodin pills a day and had dropped to just 128 pounds.

"I didn't know how to stop," he said. "If the police came over to my house and said, 'If you drink tonight, we're going to take you to jail,' I'd start packing. I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older."

The actor told PEOPLE he decided to share his deeply personal experiences in his memoir in order to help others on a similar journey.

"I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again," he said. "I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people."

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Perry was found dead at his Los Angeles home over the weekend after an apparent drowning, TMZ first reported. Law enforcement sources told the outlet there were no drugs found and the scene, and no signs of foul play were present. 

A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson later told PEOPLE on Saturday that officers responded to a call at Matthew's address regarding the death of a male in his 50s, though authorities would not confirm the deceased's identity. 

The actor's family released a statement to PEOPLE on Sunday, saying, "We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother. Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend. You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love."

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.