Gaz

Losing a parent is a difficult thing to come to terms with regardless of your age. But for 27-year-old Gaz, it derailed his life.

He was just 20 when his father passed away and, as time passed, he began struggling to cope with all aspects of his life, including his job and his daily routine.

He said: “After I lost my Dad, I just couldn’t cope with anything. I lost all motivation and all I could bring myself to do was to drink heavily. I went from one job to another because I couldn’t control my drinking. This went on for a number of years and the constant arguing with my girlfriend forced us to split up. I had nothing and I didn’t care about myself anymore.”

After reaching rock bottom, Gaz moved in with his mum in a bid to try and control his drinking. With no luck finding work to pay for his alcohol addiction Gaz turned to a life of crime.

Gaz’s addiction led to his family being evicted from his Mum’s home and him going on the run from the police. With no roof over his head, Gaz relied on his friends to lend him their sofas, but when he couldn’t find anywhere to stay he found himself sleeping in the local park.

Eventually, the police caught up with him and he ended up in prison.

Gaz said: “It was being in prison that made me think about what I’d been doing. They say it takes eight days to get off drink with the help of drugs, but I think it takes a lot longer than that.

In prison, I completed a number of courses such as Alcohol Awareness. While doing this course, I realised what drink was really doing to me. I had a lot of time to think about my life, about how I’d let all my friends and family down but, most of all, how I had let myself down.

After being released from prison, I was sleeping on my sister’s sofa, which was hard as she only had a one-bedroom flat and a new born baby. I spoke to my Probation officer and a friend and they told me about Recycling Lives and how to go about referring myself.”

Within 48 hours, Gaz was invited to join the centre and in October 2009 he became a Recycling Lives Resident.  He quickly made a lot of new friends and registered on numerous training courses.

After just five months, Gaz was offered a full time job on the Recycling Lives CRT line, dismantling TVs and computer screens and separating the parts for recycling. He registered with social landlord Community Gateway and was able to search for a property of his own.

Gaz said: Thanks to Recycling Lives I now have a full time job, a future and a home of my own. I really appreciate everything they have done for me and I would recommend Recycling Lives to anybody who is finding it hard to sort their life out.