I have a history of cocaine and alcohol which progressively got worse over my 17-year addiction. My mother was an alcoholic and one of my siblings is too. I was also diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 10.

When I was 18, I began working in a pub. I started drinking because everyone else was doing it and it was a way of socialising – I’d never really had friends as a child as I was an odd one out. During the following years, cocaine was added to the alcohol. On many occasions I applied to rehab but I was just doing it to get people off my back so I’d cancel it and never actually go.

At one point a few years ago, I was staying at a Transform facility, but it didn’t end well. What I did when I left there was disgusting – I threw oil around the kitchen, I cut wires, I left it in a complete state. I was battling mental health problems at the time and was suicidal.

After the first Covid lockdown, I was hitting the cocaine hard and I tried to take my life – it was the second time. I'd be sniffing cocaine for seven days straight plus drinking excessively until I passed out, hoping I wouldn’t wake up. At around this time, a new Christian friend brought faith into my life – but I wasn’t yet ready to change.

I went back to my parents but I didn’t want to be alive so I put every pill I could find in the house into a bowl and swallowed them all. The next thing I remember is waking up shaking among broken glass. My father had to pick me up and put me on the sofa. What father has to do that for his grown-up child – take him to the toilet and clean his wounds? It was a huge wake-up call and I finally went to rehab where I stayed for three months but at that point, because of my ADHD, they couldn’t offer me any more support.

So that's when I contacted Transform. I wrote a letter expressing my sincere apology for my previous behaviour and miraculously they let me in so I moved into a Transform dry and drug-free property. I live with a number of other people in a comfortable house with a lovely garden.

We each have a keyworker, which is how I came into Beverley’s life – she drew the short straw! She’s had to go with me to lots of hospitals because my addiction has had medical consequences. I have lost 90% of the inside of my nose, I have a hole in my palate and foot problems. I've been persecuted by doctors because of my past addiction but Beverley is always right beside me, picking me up and without that support, I would have given up. She goes above and beyond, everyone at Transform does. They care.

Our keyworkers are critical. Poor Beverley’s phone never stops! It's about their listening, guidance and truthfulness. Beverley is a caring, wonderful person and I tell her all the time what a blessing she is. This is also where my faith has come in, because, alongside Bev, it has helped me build a life that’s not about money or material things, but about love from true people.

I’ve learnt how to change my addictive behaviour patterns and there's no money I could ever give to Transform to thank them for what they’ve done for me – I have been clean for three years now.  After how I behaved before, anyone else would have said: “Sorry mate, you don't deserve a second chance!” but they didn’t. They provide hope when there is none and they don’t just give people ‘a’ chance, they give them multiple chances.

Today, my foundation is strong thanks to Transform and my faith. I’ve had situations where I've been around cocaine or alcohol but have not been tempted. The next step will be to move to a smaller place with less support. I'm also hoping to have surgeries on my nose and feet, plus get some mental health help.

I want to give back so I currently volunteer at the British Heart Foundation and, after my surgery, I’ll be looking for paid work. In five years’ time I’d like to be helping people with addiction and mental health challenges.

Three words to describe Transform for me? Life over addiction. That’s what they have given me, a life. If I hadn’t come to Transform I would be dead. It’s as simple as that.