When I arrived in Dundee at the doors of Jericho House in June 2005, I believed my life was “fine” I didn’t see the heartbreak or the destruction that lay in my wake.

I ended up surviving from bin to bin for food, and from shed to shed for shelter. Anything that I acknowledged was wrong in my life I blamed on others, to the extent that no one wanted to be involved in my life and I liked it that way. The day I arrived I still did not think I had a problem and after being shown my room I had decided that this wasn’t for me. But that night I spoke to one of the men in the house and he told me a piece of his story. I could not believe it, I felt he was talking about me! We sat up until the early hours, just chatting.

That is when I made the startling discovery, other people knew how I was feeling and I wasn’t alone. The next day my life just didn’t start getting better, it was the day my life started. Through the good sponsorship, finding my Higher Power and giving myself to a 12 step programme, I started to discover who I really was and what real friends were.

Today I am a husband, a father and a responsible hard working member of the public. I have started to mend bridges with family and friends, and others that I had hurt on what I call my journey.