John

I grew up in Liverpool and started taking drugs when I was 13 years old, when they were introduced to me on the steps of the estate where I lived.  This quickly escalated into experimenting with other substances and by 15, I was selling drugs to fund my habit. Some of my family members were in a County Lines gang, and it wasn’t long before I was sucked in and doing jobs for them. Drugs destroyed everything I touched. I became addicted to heroin and 35 years later after serving multiple prison sentences and losing contact with my family, I finally made the decision to stop.

I am now 2 years clean, and have no intention of going back to my old life.

I do a variety of voluntary positions and am part of a naloxone medication programme, helping to save lives in the area that I live.

I volunteer with Five Lives because I would like to try to stop young people making the same mistakes I did and wasting their lives on drugs.