"I started smoking weed at a young age, I fell into the wrong group of friends, started committing offences, robbing motorbikes and sheds. I then got into harder drugs - speed, coke then the new drug methadrone came out, I would go on binges where I didn’t eat or sleep for days, even weeks sometimes. I was even paranoid to leave the house. A driving offence led me to being put on tag and working with probation, having regular meetings and weekly drug testing.
I then signed up for Tomorrow’s People. I found it hard at first but they made me feel very welcome, they always had time for me, helped me in whatever way they could, they would praise me on a weekly basis for staying off the drugs and being a better person. I made some new friends there and finally cut myself off from the negative people in my life.
I am now volunteering for the British Heart Foundation, I’m really enjoying it, I feel such a better person. My next step will be to secure a paid job. I want to become a mentor because I feel I can relate to and support people with similar experiences and make them realise that it’s not the way forward taking drugs and they don’t have to carry on having an addiction - there is support and help out there, you just have to take the first step. I have changed my life around and it’s a much better life. I want to help others get though their hard times in life I guess."
Portrait // Devin, Lowestoft. 24.
I photographed an amazing guy called Devin in Lowestoft who has the most incredible but sad stories. Devin has had support from the charity, Tomorrow's People for 2 months now and has completely turned his life around. I shot him in the alley way behind the house he grew up in. Devin thought I was such a weirdo because I liked the washing lines so much. When the shoot finished he went and told his mum that I had taken pictures of the washing lines and he thought it was because I didn't have any where I was from.