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

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We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused. He said: “I’ve met the future king, I’m going to be made bishop this year alone. It’s been a life of extremes and people wouldn’t believe it. Forgiveness was not the end of the story for CerysMorgan. She explains how God also led her to seek justice in her abuse case

We need to repent so that God can move – this church included – we haven’t provided for the poor as we should have done. Wherever we are, there are people who are lonely, lost, upset, hungry. If you live in an affluent place, there are still old people who are lonely. It reads: “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.” 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 get more death threats as a Christian than I did when I was doing the other [criminal] stuff! The things that have been levelled at me did upset me: that I’m just a social worker and I’m not giving the gospel. I just think they’ve misunderstood the gospel. I have been arrested for every serious offence you can think of," he admits with candour. They were leading the life of hurting other people, so drug dealers or whatever. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. He added: "I can tell you something - never stop talking about her. Keep her alive in your memory, in your heart."

I didn’t break any laws – I did my best anyway. The police tried to arrest me once in a car park – I wasn’t brilliant at not hugging people, because the guys I was hugging were dying. On one street where I was delivering food parcels, three men under 40 killed themselves in three weeks. It's impossible to visit Church on the Street and not be deeply moved by the work the organisation does for those in need," writes the new Prince of Wales. 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.Eventually, a breakdown and several miraculous encounters led him to find hope and healing in Jesus. We have our own counsellors, hot food, a food bank, showers, a needle exchange, washing machines, opticians, Citizens Advice. And we have prayer and Bible study, right in the middle of all that. On a Sunday, we have our Sunday services. The sound that came out my mother – I imagine it’s the sound Jesus made as he took his last breath on the cross. I looked at my mum and dad crying, and I didn’t feel that there was any space for me there. Let’s look at ourselves and restructure for the times we’re in. And let’s not do what we’ve always done. Stained-glass windows won’t feed children. There’s a place for that, of course, but we’ve got to love people and care for them and meet the need. Now’s the time for that.

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.” Many will recognise the pastor as he shot to fame during the pandemic in 2020 when a BBC News report of him delivering food to those in need was watched by 50 million people.I know he’s never acted before but he has the same mental health traits as me and seems to cope with them in the same way as I do – except I’m not the heavyweight champion of the world.

I met Jesus in the shop doorway, not in the church. Where else would he have been? I wanted to be part of a church where Jesus was in the shop doorway, and it didn’t exist.Perhaps a more formal style might have enabled some better reflections; for the book conceals as much as it reveals. It is a collage of incidents and people from his life. There are enigmatic glimpses of his involvement with drugs and gangs and carrying a gun. He writes about his appalling treatment of his mother — he steals from her purse as she lies dying — his wives and children, though we have no idea what became of most of them. There seems little remorse for many of the lives that he must have blighted. It’s worse now. The need is rising, but the resource is less. We’ve got more working poor and pensioner poverty. Children are undernourished and we’re seeing more disabled people sleeping rough. I could go on and on. 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.