Foysol's story

“I come from an Asian Indian Bangladeshi background. My mother left when I was really young so I emigrated to the UK with my father and we had beautiful five years together.” 

“At the age of 11, my father had a heart attack. That was very traumatic. There were a lot of problems between myself and my half-brothers. As soon as my father was gone the abuse started. It would be physical or mental abuse. It escalated very quickly.” 
 

“If they had a bad day they'd come and take it out on me which is basically what led to me having 
my first drink. I was 12 at the time. That lasted until I was in my 30s.” 
 

“At the age of 23 I got married and had two children. I had my son, and then a couple of years later I had my daughter. I would come back from a night out, and I would wake up in the morning, get a bit sober, and I would see them in bed, and that feeling was just overwhelming. I had a lot of unresolved trauma and this brought up a lot of repressed memories.” 
 

“Eventually my wife and I got a divorce.” 

“I couldn't work anymore. I was a mini-cab driver, with alcohol you can’t really work, you can’t drive. My whole world started crumbling. My car got sold off, I couldn’t pay the insurance. My mental health started escalating. I couldn't keep up with the bills, with the rent, everything is just basically falling apart around me.” 

“After the divorce and losing the flat, I became homeless.” 

Being referred to Crisis  
After going to an alcohol and drug treatment centre in West London, Foysol was referred to Crisis. 

“That’s when I met Kat, one of the tutors at Crisis, who was offering the literacy course and Jeremy, who became my lead worker. Kat changed my life. She also referred me to Cherelle, my psychologist here at Crisis. We started our weekly sessions and we have been seeing each other for about two years now.” 

Where he is now 
Foysol completed a Welding and Engineering course and is currently part of the Changing Lives programme at Crisis to start his own business.  

“I’ve always loved the way you can polish up metal and it just becomes shiny it just fascinated me. So I found the welding and engineering course that I wanted to do and did it. I graduated with 85 percent a year ago now. I was the second highest achieving student for that course for that year.” 
 

“Now I’m with the Changing Lives programme at Crisis. I applied for a grant after I finished my course to start my business and the grant got approved. I want to get to a point where I can have my own online store.’’ 

He is now back living with his ex-wife and children.