A few years later: I’d joined the British Army and was alternately stationed in the UK and left the army in Germany. I had hit rock bottom in every way. I had no plan and no hope for my future I was a physically and mentally ill.
At a moment where my life seemed to hang on a thread, when I was literally and figuratively in the gutter. I laid unconscious in my one bedroomed flat in northern Germany
I had a dream. Others might call it a vision or revelation. Back then, I was anything but religious, but I nonetheless dreamt that the Virgin Mary appeared to me and said, "John, God has given you a strong heart. He has got almighty plans for you to do"
It took me a long time before I was able to process this situation. Nevertheless, in hindsight, this was the crucial moment when my life turned around and took a new direction. I realised that even though I never had a childhood that I had to give something back to the world. To show this world that the deprived children, like me, are also capable of achieving their goals. I knew I would receive something essential in return – meaning, dignity and perhaps even a mission.