I experienced first hand the destructive mental, emotional and physical effects from the lies and myths that drug taking, gang affiliation and criminal actives offered. This also went hand in hand with the devastating consequences permeating my family and surrounding social groups.

The dominating forces in my younger years were poverty, neglect, abuse and violence. These factors led to my teen years being overshadowed by low self esteem, violence and criminal activities, resulting in a custodial prison sentence totalling 9 years and 9 months for crimes I was convicted of, whilst just 16 years old. Upon release I spent the next 8 years involved in criminal activities including gang affiliation, criminal activity, violence and drug dealing. This culminated in a mainline heroin addiction, which at its peak, saw me injecting myself up to ten times a day. Needless to say this explosive and volatile culture, was destroying my mental health daily. In and amongst these destructive years I had fathered two children, at the age of 15 and 22, but I had little or no contact with them.

I finally broke this cycle of destruction in 1998 when i went away to rehab and started slowly rebuilding my life into what it is today.