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For Thomas Mawer, a chance meeting with the founder of a Jersey homelessness charity rescued him from a life that was spiralling downwards through crime and drug addiction.
After growing up without a male role model in his life and then running with an older, influential crowd at school in Nottingham, Thomas fell into what he describes as a thieving, godless existence. He then moved to Jersey, where he had family connections, and started working in signwriting and graphic design.
But he took a different path when he was asked by friends to carry some drugs back to the island following a visit to England...
"I foolishly thought I was helping them, so I did as they asked. When I brought heroin valued at £1,000 into Jersey, I discovered that it was actually worth £57,000 over here," he said.
"It was easy money, so within six months I had given up work and instead made that trip two or three times a year. It worked well until I became known, until I became an addict myself... then it wasn't enjoyable at all."
Thomas talks of a life that lacked purpose or direction. He was arrested on several occasions and ultimately spent seven years in prison. Although he went through a number of detox programmes, the pull of heroin was too strong, and he kept returning to the drug and to dealing to fund his addiction.
Pictured: The Sanctuary Trust's base in St. Aubin.
"I couldn't escape. One reason was the amount of money I was making and the high cost of living. Another was my reputation. And thirdly, I was written off by society – I was alone," he recalled.
"The easiest thing was just to give up, or to keep going the wrong way. People warned me that I'd eventually kill myself, but I was still cocky enough to think that I could get out of it when I wanted to, but that's not how the world works. I was just lying to myself, kidding myself."
Colin Taylor was running the Forrester's Arms at Beaumont when Thomas first met him. They got chatting over a pint, and Colin asked for some advice for a homeless friend. Having been through the benefits system himself, Thomas was able to guide the friend through the scheme and ultimately find accommodation for him. That was a pivotal moment in Thomas' life and set him on a course that would eventually lead him away from an existence that centred solely on his own needs and desires towards one that put others ahead of himself.
"I saw Colin again a few weeks later and he said, 'I've got something to show you.' He had this guest house, an empty building that he'd acquired, and he told me that we were going to fill it with homeless people – and we did!
Pictured: Thomas Mawer.
"Along with helping to get Sanctuary House up and running, I became one of the first residents. There was a part of me that was just getting what I could out of it at the time, but there was another part that recognised I had to get away from the situation I had been in. I saw it as a way out, so I went with it.
"I was still taking Valium and heroin at that point, but Colin and I went to the Drug and Alcohol Service together. I signed up for another detox, my sixth, but I was determined to go through with it because I saw it as my chance to break away from that recurring pattern."
Despite this good work, while in Jersey Thomas still felt "defined by my past" and felt he had to start again.
"So, eight or nine months after Sanctuary House officially opened, I went to live in Chichester. Colin and Reverend Mark Bond, who is now Vice Chair of the charity, were always close to my heart, and they passed on their wisdom, so back in England I emulated what they were doing," he said.
"I went into pizza shops and food stores and asked for leftover food and started feeding the homeless. As 40% of homeless people can't read or write, I started helping with literacy, as well as getting them onto benefits and into the system. Some church people noticed what I was doing and asked if I would like a building where I could feed the homeless all together, so we started that at St. Pancras Church in Chichester.
"We set up a breakfast club and got sponsors, and then we built a small army of people with all sorts of skills to share, including homeless people themselves, so they were invested in the changes we were making. We called the charity Heart for Homeless. To start with, there was a bit of denial that there was even a problem in the area. People were saying that there were only a couple of homeless people needing support, but I said, 'If there are only two, why am I feeding 60 people every day?'
"It was very similar to the problem Colin had identified in Jersey before setting up Sanctuary Trust: hidden homelessness, when teenagers are staying on friends' sofas or people are sleeping in cars. These are the people you don't see or hear about."
At Thomas' instigation, other charities and initiatives have followed in Chichester, including a local gym who let homeless people use the equipment and have a shower before the facility opens in the morning, a sleeping bag exchange where people get their clothes cleaned and are given help and advice at the same time, and a system that enables donors to give with confidence to those living on the streets by providing homeless people with lanyards that can be scanned to give information about who they are, what they need and how to donate to them via the charity.
Thomas says everything he has achieved since leaving Jersey was inspired by Colin Taylor and Sanctuary Trust. Colin sadly passed away in April 2015, but he left a lasting impact through all the community work he did for the homeless. His philanthropy and faith were an inspiration to Thomas.
"It was the foundation of everything I have done," he reflected.
Pictured: Colin Taylor receiving British Empire Medal from the Lieutenant-Governor, General Sir John McColl, in 2015 just before he died.
"Colin and I came to an agreement: his thing was to spread the gospel, mine was to alleviate poverty. Those are the two core doctrines and I've kept to them ever since. I think Colin would be very proud. We always wondered if it would last. It has not only lasted, but it's thrived. I look at what's happened and I'm proud of it... I think he'd be smiling."
Thomas was the first of more than 300 men who to date have been supported by Sanctuary Trust. The charity has changed considerably since those early days back in 2011.
Now triple the size, it provides accommodation and support across three shelters, helping up to 30 men who have fallen on hard times. The reasons the men come to Sanctuary Trust vary – it can be redundancy, business failure, marriage/relationship breakdown, poor mental health, domestic abuse, or addiction.
The focus of the charity's dedicated team remains the same – to provide these men with a home and a helping hand to get back on track. Like Thomas, when they have turned their own lives around, many then go on to pay it forward.
This article was kindly
Think you could sleep rough to help the Sanctuary Trust? It's annual – and most important – fundraiser, the Pier Road car park Sleep Out is taking place on 17 November. Find out more details and sign up by clicking HERE.
Sanctuary Trust is the official charity partner of Bailiwick Express and Connect Magazine.
Sanctuary does not receive Government funding, so relies on its own fundraising efforts and donations from the public. Every little helps: a monthly standing order of £50 would go towards the cost of providing meals for one of our residents.
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This article first appeared in this month's edition of Connect Magazine, which you can pick up for free around the island or read in full below...
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