My name is Josh, and I was raised in Toowoomba with my three older sisters. My Dad was a doctor in Toowoomba Base Hospital and Mum was an office lady who worked two jobs, so my sisters raised me in a way. Mum and Dad split up, and on the first day of grade one, my Dad dropped me off, and I never really saw him again after that. I had to grow up fast at home because I felt that I was the man of the house. Mum stayed single for a few years, having the odd boyfriend. I was around 7 years old when she started dating this guy from her work who was a big drinker and abusive to her and my sister. I would jump in the middle of him trying to hit my mum and then I would get thrown across the room.

By the age of 10, I was smoking cigarettes and not really wanting to be at home so I would stay with my friends. At 12 I had stopped going to school regularly and was smoking pot and drinking a lot of alcohol.

I started selling pot in the morning before school and began breaking into places to pay for my habit. Fast forward a couple of years I was 15 and a half and I got kicked out of my school for selling drugs. No school wanted to take me on as a student, so my family put me on a fishing trawler, hoping to clean me up, and that’s when I got hooked on speed. I kept it hidden from my family for years. I lost my relationship with my kids, and I got in deep with the wrong people because I could manufacture speed and people wanted me cooking for them. Losing my kids to child safety was the breaking point; it took me to a dark place where I didn’t care about anything or anyone. I had become very dangerous. I had lost everything, in and out of the cells. No one wanted to be around me. I lost everyone.

I had tried a couple of times to get clean and kept going back to what I knew. I was down to 50 kgs and had seizures from not eating for weeks on end, which wound me up in hospital. I thought, “I’ve done it this time”.

A few days later I came to and I thought “I can’t do this anymore”. I knew about Transformation’s so I made a phone call to get in one Friday afternoon and by Monday morning I was there. I owe my life to Transformations. They have saved me and I have found Christ in my walk here. It’s amazing what this program has done for me. I had the chance to go to Tasmania for 6 months of my program and I’ve got my family back in my life and a relationship with my kids again. Words can’t explain how great it is to see smiles on their faces, to be allowed in my family’s home. After graduating the program I was given the chance to stay on as a leader and be a house supervisor for a season while I studied. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Transformations.