For the past 10 years I have been self employed as a large scale muralist/ street artist, currently based in the UK.  Within this time I have been blessed to travel to many countries with my work, painting large scale murals across the world in places such as the United States (Miami, Michigan & Los Angeles), Mexico, England and North Africa – Which leads me on to why I have set up this project… I have been through my own personal struggles with addiction and mental health. I know how dark and lonely it can be at the worst times. Sometimes interacting with other humans can be the hardest thing in the world.  Over the past 11 years I have

As a child I just could never fit in, and I really tried. I was very academically bright, but ‘didn’t play well with others’ and as I got to high school, I found it even harder to make friends. I started to get into more trouble because I thought it made me more popular with other kids. I lost interest in schoolwork; the teachers only saw me as a troublemaker so I just gave up trying. At 13, after high school number 5 I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.   Back then, there was a huge stigma around autism. The language used around autism was all based on the deficit model, and there was no understanding of autism in girls back then. 

I had struggled to come to terms with my sexuality during childhood and was told in 1991 that I had just six months to live after a HIV diagnosis. I was still alive 10 years later but heavily dependent on alcohol, crack cocaine and heroin. In 2006 I ended up overdosing on class A drugs while suffering with the Aids related disease PCP Pneumonia. At my lowest point I didn’t see a way out, I was told that I had hours to live, the second death sentence I had been given in my life. I have no idea how I survived, alcohol and drugs were my friends, they were a coping mechanism! I was homeless, addicted to crack and heroin

I grew up being told I was never good enough, never smart enough, and nobody would ever want me. To top it off I had a secret that I knew they would never except. I knew I was different, but growing up in the church I knew it was wrong and hid it for years, trying to change who I am. After two kids and a failed marriage, I finally came out and my biggest fear became a reality. after years of trying to change me didn’t work, most of my family wanted nothing to do with me. My friends told me that I had to choose between being myself or being their friend. I left alone, ashamed, and scared.

I met the girl of my dreams at 21 and moved to Blackpool. I spent 15 years as happy as I could be in a town I came to call home. I lost a close relative in a short period of time just before lockdown and found myself in crisis. I was in a job where I wanted nothing more than to help relieve others pain and struggles and found myself neglecting my own problems and creating problems for those closest to me. It was a day during lockdown I caught myself planning my own death on the way to work to help those also in crisis. I was assist trained as a result of the job I chose and

In 2019 I was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease which affects 10-15% of patients. I’d never heard of it, so I had to try to research what the future might hold or if there was actually going to be one. Just a few days before, I’d been suddenly made redundant, so I had time to research books, read articles and scour the internet and Facebook groups. That was probably the worst thing I could have done; I scared myself senseless! Because my cancer was Stage 3, meaning that it had already spread, I was put on chemotherapy immediately. I had weekly doses for five months, followed by surgery and radiotherapy. I’d been asked

Hi, my name is Robin I’m 72 yrs old, not something that I want to remind myself of. I was born in Blackpool and have lived here all my life. Like most people out there my upbringing was not the happiest after losing my mum when I was 9years old. The path I chose in life was one I had to make myself and I know that not having my mum by my side definitely made that path a very lonely one. I have been married to my wife Vanessa for 38 years and we have two daughters together who adore me and like I adore them.  I have always put my hand to anything in life and it was

It was 2018, I was 38, I had a good job with the civil service and I had two grown up children and had been with my partner for 22 years, he was the father of my children and we had been through a lot together. We were childhood sweethearts and I thought we would be together forever…we took cocaine together recreationally, it started being every 6 months then became an every month thing, then a weekly thing. My eldest child went travelling to Australia and my youngest was dancing and doing her own thing, I felt like I wasn’t a mum anymore…my partner and I began to argue and at times didn’t speak for long periods of time, I

Things hit me really bad when I lost my grandad, he was my hero and I was young, around 12-13 and didn’t know how to deal with it. Both grandparents basically raised me and I was really close to them. It didn’t just affect me, it broke my family apart when he died. I already really struggled at school before so with his death constantly on my mind I just gave up completely. I got in with the wrong crowd and started taking drugs, by the age of 14 I was on hard drugs and alcohol. That life continued until I left school then it got a whole lot worse – I started the life of crime as it was

From the age of four, I used to tell myself that I’m on the wrong planet or maybe I was adopted. I felt different to my peers who looked happy and content in their own skin. I felt like a square peg in a round hole. The story I am about to tell you has nothing to do with the way I was brought up, I’m from a good family. I was far more intelligent than my peers and I was at the top of my class for everything, which used to get me in trouble. I had two lives growing up one was life on a council estate the other was with my grandparents on the farm that they

For my courageous sister Katy – The red butterfly… In March 2022 Katy complained of not feeling well, at the same time she mentioned a funny smell, one similar to that of burning toast. Soon after my 9-year-old niece and two nephews found Katy on the floor having a seizure and called her partner to come and help, Katy was immediately rushed into Blackpool A&E. She couldn’t remember where she was, couldn’t remember her children’s names or dates of birth. It was here that it was found she had a large mass in her brain. Fast forward to another MRI which confirmed she had a brain tumour, we then had to wait to see the neurologist at Preston Hospital to

At the age of 20, I met a man who appeared to be the most charming, kind and loving human Ihad ever met. We quickly fell in love and before we knew it, we were expecting a baby.During pregnancy, the abuse started. Initially, emotional and then financial abuse began tocreep into our relationship, he would call me names, gaslight and bully me.I was diagnosed with sepsis at 21 weeks pregnant and put into an induced coma, during thistime he was not present. He cheated and when I awoke, he came to tell me that this was myfault.My son was born and the abuse only heightened. He tried to kidnap my child, began to beat me,control me, and would lock me

“I was in a drug haze for 35 years and am now doing really well on my new journey. I am very proud of myself for where I am now.” Vince has recently walked 138 miles to raise money for our partners Mulberry Community Project, here’s some of his story… I’ve now been with Mulberry Community Project for over 2 years. I am a recovering drug addict. I started taking substances as a child, and didn’t really feel like I fitted in anywhere. When I was under the influence, I didn’t have to be myself or be in my own head. I have been a drug user for over 30 years. As a teen I started committing crime, petty crime,

Hi my name is Paul. I’m 48 and battled with addiction for 34 years. I grew up in Stoke Newington, Hackney on a council estate which I absolutely loved. I was smoking dope at 12yrs old, drinking heavily at age of 14, a coke head at age 16 and a heroin addict by the age of 17! I definitely had an identity problem as I had been a mod, skinhead, hippy and even a white rasta!  Seriously though I had no clue who I was or what I was doing let alone where I belonged. I worked on street markets as a child – drinking and using drugs was the norm in my environment, especially during my time down Ridley

Recovery or Discovery? I could bore you with countless tales of misadventure whilst wandering around my life in a nonchalant manner, but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. Today it’s about my journey from making that choice to change, acceptance and understanding and how I developed a sense of self which were guided by my deepest values. From the first moment I walked into a meeting I knew that it was possible to stop using drugs and it was here that I learnt the basics of what was needed to do so. I spent the next few years attending meetings, various impatient detox’s and rehabilitation centres, but my stubborn unwillingness to accept and understand the situation I had found