David Tovey has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness for his work with Arts and Homeless International. In this personal piece he writes about his health struggles and homelessness, and how one man’s generosity helped set him onto a new path.

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On Easter Sunday 2011 I had a stroke which was the catalyst for my life falling apart.

Within six months I was diagnosed with cancer neurosyphilis and admitted to hospital.
During treatment I had a cardiac arrest which affected my mental health. In one week I tried to take five overdoses, attempting to end my life. My doctor phoned to say there was a problem with my blood.
I was diagnosed HIV positive.

Then life plodded along for a while. I went to university and tried to change my career to give myself a new outlook on life. I was still troubled. On June 20th 2013 I took an overdose in a park in central London. I was lucky as a lifesaver from the nearby leisure centre resuscitated me, called an ambulance and got me into hospital.

But that wasn't the end of it. When I left the hospital, I came back to my flat to find that the locks had been changed and I'd been made homeless. I was broken, devastated, lost and didn't know what to do. But I was a soldier. I'd spent six years in the forces, so I had this mentality of, "I've got myself into this, I can get myself out." I moved into my car - a Peugeot 206 - which for a six feet four inches guy is not the best. This became my home for the next six months.

I've never really spoken a lot about my time experiencing homelessness because it was really awful. I wouldn't wish homelessness on my worst enemy. It destroys your soul. It takes away your choice. It takes away your friends. It takes away your family. As it went on it took away my mind. It broke me. It stole every single little bit of my soul.

I felt the shame and the stigma that is thrown at you daily, and the abuse and the hate that you receive from the public for being in a situation that you never chose. I got to the stage where I couldn't carry on. I hadn't eaten for three days. There was a major storm and a tree came down and hit my car. I had about 50 parking tickets on my windscreen. I had nowhere to turn. No-one to ask for help. I went into the council office and they threw me out. My HIV had got out of control to the extent that if it was left I would've been dead. My body was falling apart, with blisters so bad on my feet that I couldn't walk.

I made the final decision to end my life because I couldn't see myself waking up the following day. To be honest I didn't want to. I went into a locked park, Isledon Gardens in Islington, and sat on a bench. I was crying and rocking. I didn't know what to do. I pulled a syringe from my pocket and two grams of crystal and started to inject.

Suddenly a man said, "What are you doing?"

I couldn't answer. I just cried, then sat with him for over two hours, telling him everything. He gave me £10 and got me into a cold weather shelter for the following day, got me back to my car and got me some food.

This is a great man. Not only did he save my life, he gave me my life back. He listened. He cared. His name is Gavin Lane, he's a park enforcement officer in Islington, and he is the most amazing individual I've ever met.
And this is where it gets to my nugget of wisdom...

Everyone tells you that one person can't change the world but I disagree. Gavin is one person and he changed my world. He gave me that choice to get back on my feet.

Hopefully I’ve done the same, and since that day I’ve gone on to do so many things, from sitting on government panels to helping other people who have been in my situation get back on their feet to get their artwork seen. I founded a homeless arts festival that has shown artworks from all over the globe. I've had artworks exhibited around the world and have won UK and international art competitions. I've met presidents and prime ministers to talk about homelessness, and how the arts have the ability to give people back their souls and provide a pathway to housing. And now I'm co-director of an international charity in the arts and homelessness, working with over 550 organisations worldwide. Our exhibitions show the world that just because we've been homeless, we aren't useless.

Hopefully my work helps my community to thrive, not just survive, because I can't grow as a person unless my community grows with me. So when they say one person can't change the world, disagree with them.

You can be that person who changes the world for someone, because a twenty second intervention changed my world forever. It only took one great person to change my world, and if he hadn't I wouldn't be here to give you this nugget of wisdom today.

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This piece was originally published in Juliette Solomon’s The Book of Nuggets (Goodkind Publishing, 2023)

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