Greater Manchester Probation Trust

Reformed Heroin Addict On Path To Recovery

SNATCHING a handbag from an elderly lady started a painful process that caused Marc to turn his back on heroin and crime.
The 29-year-old, from Tonge Moor, Bolton, first appeared before the courts in his mid-teens as he lost interest in school and began taking drugs and stealing cars.
The lowest point, Marc’s last offence, occurred when he snatched a handbag to get cash to feed his habit. In the process he inadvertently injured the victim. He was sentenced to 52 months for robbery and assault and was jailed in December, 2006.

He said: “The incident was really the lowest I had ever stooped, and it was the turning point for me.
“Once I realised what I’d done, I knew I needed to turn my life around as this wasn't in my nature, it was about feeding my addictions, and I was so ashamed about what I’d done and what I’d put everyone through.
“It was also the first time my family refused to speak to me, and that gave me added incentive to quit.
“I just hope one day she will be able to forgive me for this.”
Marc started his sentence and decided to quit using heroin.
He said: “I’d never really committed to quit before, people did try to help me, and my family tried many times, but I hadn’t wanted to.
“I was a few weeks doing the ‘rattle’, I didn’t sleep for about five days, just an hour or two here and there, and heroin was always on my mind, but I couldn’t be bothered with the drug anymore. It’s also harder to get in jail, it was £70 per bag, I hadn’t got any money and I didn’t want to do everything that went along with continuing to use.”
Since release, in November, 2008, Marc has not only kept clean and not re-offended, he has passed a number of exams, is currently on a plumbing course and has just started a job working in a warehouse.
He said: “I started getting into trouble aged 15, I was brought up in a rough place and hung around with people older than me, they were bad lads and I joined in.
“I was joy riding, smoking weed. School was okay until the end, then I began to wag to go and smoke.
“It really escalated from there, until I got a heroin habit and ended up stealing to feed it. Robbery was scary but I was doing it for the money and I thought it was easy.”
Marc was first before the courts in 1996 for public order offences, and then the next decade was punctuated by a string of sentences. During the peak of his heroin habit, which cost him up to £50 per day, the 6ft man dropped to just nine stone and spent a period sleeping rough.
Marc’s mum died when he was 17 and his grandparents took him and his two sisters in.
Pamela Marshall, his gran, said: “We set a curfew but he’d disappear and go missing and for a week we’d hear nothing. I didn’t mind giving him money and knew he stole jewellery and things from us, but I didn’t care because I wanted to keep him out of jail.
“All I was fearful of was hearing a knock at the door and being told he had overdosed.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think he would be able to quit. We really thought it would kill him. At first we didn’t believe he’d stopped, but as we began visiting him in jail we could see the difference.
“It’s wonderful that he’s turned his life around. I am so, so proud of him.”
Although it was his decision to turn his back on his lifestyle, and his strength of character and determination that made it possible, he was helped by both his probation officer Laura Biggs and Employment Training and Education (ETE) worker John Ormsby, based at Bolton. Initially Marc met Laura once a week, and she helped arrange for him to meet John
Marc said: “I’d been on probation in the past but never bothered with it, but this time I wanted to change. Laura has always been there to support me and John has been brilliant with me, especially with the maths.
“Laura regularly rang me to offer support and to see how I was coping, and she kept in touch with the whole family.”
Laura, who now sees Marc once a month, said he worked with drug agencies inside Buckley Hall prison and after release, and attended the Higher Bridge Project to help with relapse prevention.
She said: “He has done excellently, and truly appears to have turned his life around. Previously Marc was a very chaotic drug user and had poor compliance, but this time he has been superb and was even asked by Higher Bridge to be a volunteer mentoring other drug users.
“Even when he could reduce his reporting, he chose to attend weekly so he could see our ETE advisers and get GNVQs in maths and English.”
Marc said: “I really regret the drugs I took, they’ve ruined everything, with the money I’ve wasted I could have got a house and car.
“I put my family through so much rubbish over the years, and lost so much time.
“When I see some of the people I used to be with, people that are still on heroin, I feel sorry for them because I know they can quit too.”