A mother's anguished campaign for safe drug injecting rooms has captured hearts in Melbourne.

Sam O’Donnell, just 27, died from a heroin overdose almost a year ago.

On the anniversary of his death, August 11, Loretta Gabriel and his family will gather in a Abbotsford lane to remember him.

"My heart aches. I'll be in that place where he died alone, in that gutter," she told Jon Faine. "I'll honour him."

Gabriel says a medically supervised safe-injecting centre could have saved his life. She’s now lobbying the Victorian Government to legislate for the facilities to save others.