“Life has changed a lot”

Two years ago I was going to see my probation officer for my appointments. Last week I took a client I support to see her probation officer. Life has changed a lot. 

I had my fifteenth birthday in a Young Offender’s secure unit and I was in and out of prison until the age of 30, my life was just social workers, probation officers and the police. In 2019, my life was a mess. One night, my cousin and I were doing what we do, but in the morning his girlfriend came running in and told me that Jason was dead. I ran in the bedroom, gave him mouth to mouth but he had died in the night. There was no bringing him back. 

I was a mess before, but after that I hit rock bottom. I had to phone his mum, my aunt and my mum, experiences like that change you. They have to. I knew I needed a change, I could not live like that anymore. 

When I got to Walk it took me some time to come through the rehab but I was out on the painting team within a few weeks. I knew early on that I wanted to do some support work, but I waited until I was asked to start that part of my journey. 

Fast forward a year and I now have a full time job working for a women’s project in the city, we work with vulnerable women who are either homeless or at risk of domestic abuse or violence. I am on the other side of the madness that I used to be in, trying to help these women find their way to change.  

Eight years ago I asked a girl called Katie out for a drink. She turned me down but she was praying for me apparently. The same girl ended up as my mum’s housing officer, so as my life changed she told Katie that I was – in her words – ‘the same as you now’, meaning that I believed in God. A year ago Katie and I started talking again, we get married soon. 

As I said, life has changed a lot. I could not be more grateful.