Blown Away: From Drug Dealer to Life Bringer: Foreword by HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES

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Speaking to Lancashire Telegraph, the pastor revealed he was “moved” when he learnt the heir to the throne wrote a foreword for his autobiography. It was that simple. Peace flooded in. It transformed me. I used to think that forgiveness was putting my arms around somebody and saying: “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine!” That’s not my understanding now.

Nothing happened so I punched the radio, headbutted the steering wheel. I shouted, "Where is this God? Am I just too evil?"' At that point I put the gun under my chin. I pulled the trigger. It didn't go off. By 17 he was an alcoholic and drug addict and his life spiralled into chaos over the next few decades. He became a coldhearted, muscle-bound drug dealer who operated in Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow with major crime gangs. It was white, brilliant white. For 15 seconds I couldn't see," he says. "It was like looking into the sun and I was paralysed by it." Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, he said: “The show been in the making for a while and has garnered a lot of interest.

His long and painful journey to recovery began at a subsequent meeting for drug and alcohol addicts, as he put his faith in God. A lot of prostitutes come in and we have hair a hairdresser who comes in to do men's hair. Every Sunday, in the middle of all this, I do the church service. It works. He added: "I can tell you something - never stop talking about her. Keep her alive in your memory, in your heart."

I was in a homeless hostel, and it was the first time in my life that I was not relying on drugs or alcohol. I had these feelings that I didn’t know what to do with. I didn’t know who I was. So l prayed, and I saw a light at the bottom of the bed. When I read this autobiography, therefore, I knew about his work and that he had turned his life around — “from drug dealer to life bringer”. So I looked for some insight into how someone is drawn to criminality in the first place and how they get themselves out of it: critical issues, if we are to reduce crime. He pauses: "I wish I could say I never took a drug or a drink again, but it was the beginning of the end."The resulting documentary, Poverty and the Pandemic: Burnley’s front line captured the public’s imagination and shone a light on the excruciating effects of deprivation and addiction that are a still too common story in many of our villages, towns and cities.

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When they got me out the door, I heard them bolt it behind me. I walked down the street, and a guy in a shop doorway asked: “Where are you going?” I said: “I don’t know.” He said: “Come and sit here.” He wrapped his quilt around me, put his hat on my head and poured cider into my mouth until the shakes stopped. It's impossible to visit Church on the Street and not be deeply moved by the work the organisation does for those in need. It is an extraordinary place ... 'HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES, from the Foreword He died two years later, because he damaged himself with alcohol and drugs, and I never told him that I knew, right from the moment I first saw him, that he was the man who raped me. I was sexually assaulted on my way to school by a stranger. I had to hide my crying because this man said he’d kill my mum and dad if I told them. I got up in the morning and decided I was going to tell my dad. But when I went downstairs, he said: “Sit down, your sister’s dead.” The police got into their vans and off they went," he says. "Church on the Street was alive. We'd found a way to do church when all the others had closed."