Nick’s Success Story

This whole journey, if you want to call it that, started from that freak accident that could happen to anybody effectively.

Prior to 2013, I was married, so I had a lovely wife and lived in a lovely village. Everything was idyllic.

I had a freak car accident in 2013. I drove to avoid an animal and hit an oak tree. The oak tree won basically. It’s not a funny matter because I there on spent four months in hospital, three months in an induced coma where they put me back together and rebuilt me. So yeah, pretty awful as you can imagine.

Then it went to, I didn’t know at the time, but it went on to being PTSD, which I suffered, the mental health side. I basically started using cocaine. Cocaine was my way of trying to numb the, what I call the demons in the thoughts in my head, and it basically escalated. A small little bit here and there got bigger and bigger. So as the years went on, I put strain on my marriage and financially, as I had to fund the habit.

Moving on to October 2018 I was using cocaine, quite a large amount of it, and I stupidly did an armed robbery, which I got caught for, and I got sentenced to five years, four months in prison. So that’s serving 32 months in prison and 32 out, which I’ve now completed.

Upon leaving prison, against my wishes, my ex-wife’s wishes, I was put into a hostel, which I didn’t know at the time, but there was a lot of drug use in there. So, whilst being in there, I did start to use cocaine occasionally, which caused me a problem, basically. But that’s what I had to do,  live there until probation finished.

During that period in the hostel, I saw posters and flyers about Newbury Soup Kitchen. I suppose I was a little bit shy and a bit nervous about what it was and the organisation that you are. So it took me until September 2021 before I actually decided I was going to pop down on a Thursday night to one of your food sessions, which I did. Thankfully I did. And it’s so much more than just a soup kitchen. I thought, like most people, it was just soup and a bread roll or a bit of food.

No, so much more, so much more. Initially, the most important thing was to help to secure a rent deposit scheme to get a privately rented flat accommodation to get me out of the hostel. This is still the most important thing to me. Other support, it’s not just a soup kitchen, it’s help with clothing, with looking for work, and with furniture, and so much more.

I do, I often come to the Wharf on a Wednesday and Saturday, where I find, I meet some friends down there and The Newbury Soup Kitchen team, and I come to the Food session on a Thursday, which is nice to sit down and have a meal. I also come to your outreach sessions on a Tuesday to sit, chat, see the nurse and get some support if I need it.

It is not just about the food. It’s nice to have the food, because I’m struggling like millions, but it’s the support. It’s the conversations that you have while you’re eating the food, I don’t think it dawns on me, until I get home. Then I sit there and reflect on it, and I think, you know what, that was good.

It is very important for my mental health. I’ve still got PTSD to this day. I’ll probably never, get rid of it. It’s in me now, but I’ve got medication, I’ve got a lovely flat now and it’s partly down to Newbury Soup Kitchen. It is a super flat, and I’m currently looking for work, so things are okay at the moment. And again, this whole journey, if you want to call it that, started from that freak accident that could happen to anybody effectively. I call it the thin line. I know it’s an old cliche, but the line was very thin and i was a drug user. It’s such a thin line. I went over that thin line, started using the drugs, which obviously wrecked the marriage and, yeah, led to crime.

 It’s all forward, lovely little flat, looking for work, which you support me with. And of course, I still get the support with the food. So yeah, things are okay for me now. But I have to say this, a vast part of that is down to the Newby Soup Kitchen and yourselves, the volunteers.