Discovered: Adrian
Wheeldon
"Eventually, after about 10 to 15 detoxes and
another four treatment centres I managed to get clean again. It was
around that time that someone mentioned that they’d got money from
The Trust to start up in business."
Everyone seemed to know what they were doing in
life and I didn’t. I always felt very, very separate from anyone
else.
"I grew up on the council estate in Colliers Avenue,
Bognor Regis, nicknamed Beirut.
“People were setting light to skips. Setting fireworks off in
the local youth clubs. My parents weren’t too much of an authority
figure. They let me do what I liked. I used to stay out late when I
was 12 or 13. Sometimes I’d come home from the amusement arcades at
2am.
“I’ve got two sisters and I’m the only boy. We all got put onto
a care order when I was 11. I went in a children’s home when I was
11 during the summer holidays. They deemed my parents very
irresponsible and I was out of control. There were regularly people
coming into our house who were using drugs and drinking.
“I used to see everything that went on and joined in. I started
doing solvents and drinking at home. But I still believe that I
have to take responsibility for what I did. I don’t think anyone
else was to blame but me.
“At school I got thrown out of every lesson and spent all my
time doing my lessons in the headmaster’s office. They were waiting
to move me to another care home that had a school.
“Within a couple of months they sent me back to another
children’s home. I turned up at the home very scared and very
frightened. I just got more scared of everyone in the end. No one
really liked me and I didn’t like them. I was out of control. So I
ran away.
“Eventually, just a few months before I was 16, the social
services didn’t know what to do with me so they sent me to live
back at home with my parents.
“My daily events for the next year or so would be to buy a
bottle of cider every day and go into Butlins. And then I had a
daughter when I was 17. I tried to settle down with the mum but
didn’t know how to have any sort of relationship and certainly
didn’t know how to bring up a child.
“I tried to be a good dad, but was never able to take
responsibility for myself and my new family. I was so frustrated by
my failings as a father, that I started lashing out at everyone
around me.
“I met someone else and started taking ecstasy and coke. My
parents had to move away from me because they were scared of me.
And that’s when I started selling drugs. Cocaine. I thought I was
jack the lad. But within a few months I ended up in a probation
house. And that’s where I was offered my first hit of heroin. I
knew it wasn’t good for me but I did it anyway. Nothing mattered
any more.
“Before I knew it I was injecting heroin. And then things
started slowly slipping away. Within a very short space of time I
robbed my parents of everything they owned. I took cheques out of
my girlfriend’s cheque book. My sister tried a couple of times to
detox me, but never found a solution.
“Before I knew it I was homeless. On the streets of Brighton. In
car parks, stair wells, squats. I collected all these old
mattresses, a plastic tarpaulin, a sofa and a little table
underneath the railway station. I had to crawl in and out of it. It
wasn’t much. And then someone burnt it down. It felt like the end
of my world.
“It got so desperate that I couldn’t even be bothered to go to
the needle exchange. All I thought was that I was waiting to die.
And in my heart I wanted to. I had no friends. No family. Anything
that anyone had ever wanted me to, I never thought I would ever
be.
“And then I got stopped by the police and eventually put into
prison where I suffered for weeks withdrawing from heroin. What I
didn’t know was that this was the start of my new life. Probation
offered me a residential treatment centre and I accepted.
“I was ok for three years. I got a job plastering. I didn’t have
my own tools or anything. The same guy who I work with today taught
me to plaster. And then, one day, I used drugs again. I ended up
sleeping on the beach, in night shelters.
“Eventually, after about 10 to 15 detoxes and another four
treatment centres I managed to get clean again. It was around that
time that someone mentioned that they’d got money from The Trust to
start up in business. My first thought was it was an easy way to
get money.
I then met Teresa at The Trust. She was so
nice. She started believing in me. And I started believing in
myself. These thoughts of just an easy way of getting money all
disappeared.
“They gave me £1000 grant and £800 loan to start up a plastering
business. I bought all my tools and a small car. Because of my
history, I thought there was no one on this earth who would give me
the money. I was always too scared to approach people for work.
“My business – AD Plastering - has been running for more than
two years. I’ve been clean for more than four years. My business is
doing well. I’m glad I’ve got what I’ve got. I also work at a drug
rehabilitation centre at night as well.
“I had a mentor for over a year. He taught me about cash flows.
Forecasting. Marketing. That sort of thing. He helped me step over
that line of responsibility that I would never have crossed without
his help.
“When The Trust said at first that I would have a mentor I
wasn’t sure. But what it did, every month I met up with him,
reminded me why I’d been given the money. I always dreamed of doing
something like that. But I never believed it. But my mentor just
encouraged me to believe in myself.
From where I’ve come from to where I am now,
it’s words I can’t describe. It’s just amazing. My mum doesn’t
really say much. About a month ago my mum said she was proud of me.
I started crying. I didn’t know how to repair the past. But when
she said that, it felt like I had become the son they
wanted.