Gram Seed admits he was once a “master” at begging money to fund his life of booze and drugs. Now he’s back doing the same thing, only this time the money he’s pleading for is for others in need.
Back in the mid-1990s Gram’s home was a bench outside the old Post Office on Middlesbrough’s Grange Road, from where he begged on a daily basis, often receiving hundreds of pounds a week.
Now he’s back begging again but now the funds he raises will help fund a rare break for some of Teesside’s most disadvantaged children and their families.
Once a violent hooligan who ended up homeless and sleeping on the street after a life of drugs and booze, Berwick Hills-born Gram underwent an incredible transformation after falling into a coma that almost took his life.
During several years as a member of The Front Line, a notorious hooligan gang that followed Middlesbrough Football Club, he suffered a series of injuries including being stabbed, bottled and having the end of his little finger chopped off.
And he served several sentences in prisons and young offenders institutions, and attempted to take his own life.
Then, in 1996 when he was just 32 years old, his life of drugs, alcohol and crime resulted in him falling into a six-day coma. After two months in prison, he returned to his mother’s home in Berwick Hills, converted to Christianity and became determined to help others avoid treading a similar path into crime and drugs.
Through his own charity, Sowing Seeds Ministries, he has spent the past 10 years travelling the country visiting prisons, schools and churches, whilst working closely with the community to aid offenders, ex-offenders and their families to a better way of life.
For the past four years Stockton-based Sowing Seeds has taken a group of 18 underprivileged Teesside children and their families on a break to Wensleydale – but Gram’s charity needs a helping hand of its own to make this year’s trip possible.
Gram, who also lived in Ormesby during his former life, said: “We take kids from across Teesside who wouldn’t otherwise get a holiday for an old-fashioned camping holiday. There’s no internet, so we play rounders and football, we go for walks and they go swimming in the river. The kids love it, they have such good fun.
“But these last two years have been tough for our charity. We were broken into and have been recovering from that, while we also lost a key funding grant too, so our annual trip that makes such a difference to the kids is in serious doubt.”
Gram is hoping local companies, organisations or individuals will step forward in the hour of need for Sowing Seeds.
During his three homeless years, Gram had a regular begging spot from a bench he called home on Grange Road, Middlesbrough, close to where McDonald’s now stands.
Now he and his team spend every Friday night there helping others whilst trying to raise much-needed funds.
He recalled: “Begging money used to come so easily – I once got £300 in one night – but I never put it to any good use. Now I’m back begging again – but it’s for others this time.
“Ironically, now it’s for a truly good cause, I just don’t seem to be having quite the same success. But I’m determined not to give up on those who I can help.
“I have a colourful past,” he said. “I followed the wrong path. I lived on the street, committed crime and spent time in prison. I made all the mistakes but now I spend my time trying to direct others from that dark life of drugs, alcohol, violence and bullying.
“My overriding message is that there’s hope for everyone, whatever you’re going through. I had a history of violence and crime but I became a Christian and decided to do good, so there is always a way forwards.”
Sowing Seeds have organised a series of fundraising events but organisations or individuals who want to help Sowing Seeds Ministries to raise the £10,000 needed to fund the trip to Wensleydale can contact Tash@sowingseeds.org.uk or call 01642 787836