'I had friends who were DJs, doormen and drug dealers... things escalated very quickly'

A bag of heroin and 15 pints of lager. This is what a typical day looked like for Steve Wyatt at the height of his alcohol and drug addiction.

It was a nightmare he endured for 22 gruelling years until he finally found hope through an unlikely source – the art of restoring furniture.

A stint at a farm retreat gave the 47-year-old the inspiration he needed to turn his life around for good. He now runs his very own vintage furniture restoration store.

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But Steve will never forget his spiral into despair. He was just a child when he first started hanging out with the wrong crowd, paving the way for the struggles he would face in the future.

Experimenting with drugs and alcohol from a very young age, Steve can recall getting drunk at the age of 12 and regularly sniffing glue and smoking cannabis.

Having left school with no qualifications, Steve enrolled at a food college with aspirations to become a chef.

But his life began to unravel when he was introduced to Birmingham’s rave scene – a thriving subculture that dominated the 90s.

“It was massive and drug-fuelled,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “I had friends who were DJs, doormen and drug dealers.

“It escalated from there very quickly. By the time I was 16 or 17, I had a criminal record for burglary. I was stealing from my parents and others to fund the lifestyle. For eight or nine years, it was mainly drinking, ecstasy and smoking weed.”

Despite his party lifestyle, Steve found work as a chef and eventually relocated to Glasgow at the age of 23.

But everything took a tragic turn when he was introduced to heroin shortly after arriving in the city.

“After two weeks, I was taking it every