IT is never too late to turn your life around and for some, the Leonard Stocks hostel is the crucial junction.
Stuart, 48, first experimented with drugs when he was 11-years old. By 12-years-old he was “unmanageable” and in a boarding school for children with behavioural problems in Minehead.
No surprise perhaps that by 16 he was thieving to fund a serious drug problem and a youth offender.
When the mainstay in his life, his mother, moved to Torquay he followed but despite some long term relationships and employment as a painter and decorator, addiction held its vice-like grip and further spells in prison did not break the cycle of dependence.
“As soon as I came out of prison I would start using drugs again. Prison doesn’t prepare you for the world outside the gates. As soon as I was back in the Bay I was on drugs again and offending.”
High level drug use destroyed his life at every level and he was frequently homeless. When the weather was fine he got used to a night under the stars but when rain and winter encroached he joined other rough sleeps in the stairwell of the Bay’s multi-storey car parks.
He prioritised drugs over food but he still could not find enough money to feed his heroin addiction.
“When I was really bad I would just lie on the concrete exhausted by withdrawal symptoms. I didn’t even have the energy to call out for money. I would just lie there at people’s feet and try and catch their eye.”
The pain of withdrawal still haunts him and the miserable life it created.
He remembers flashes of hope, when he connected with Project 58 Christian outreach centre in Torquay. “A mug of soup and a couple of slices of bread never tasted better”.
Stuart will never forget January 28 2023: “It was then I was offered a place at the hostel. I had spent an horrendous year on the street and not getting any younger.”
Immediately he was given access to health services and, crucially, drug rehab.
By March he had stopped injecting heroin and replaced his life-long dependence on illegal drugs with prescribed medication. It ended his petty thieving and drug dealing that had taken him in and out of prison so often.
“I’m not religious but I believe a higher power has been watching over me to bring me to this place of safety and recovery. The hostel has given me space to reflect and make plans for the future. The staff are brilliant, from so many different walks of life. They bring their own life experience which creates an amazing place.
“I love the games evenings with the Friends. They come in share a meal and have a chat, maybe play a few board games. Then they carry our message out into the town and explain what goes on here.”
Stuart has enjoyed art all his life and used it to “keep sane”. “It takes me to another world, I paint happy memories.”
Now his artwork is on the walls of the hostel and he has exhibited locally, even selling a painting.
The average life expectancy of rough sleepers is 47 compared to 77 for the general male population. Stuart is hopeful of leaving that dreadful statistic on the roadside.”
Stuart: a troubled life has been stabilised within the hostel giving him space to re-discover his love of art