He helped at Grenfell and met royalty,
Carl Chant has won an award for his work at Grenfell and met royalty, but claims employers “can’t look past” his life as a heroin addict. CHRISTIE BANNON spoke to him
CARL Chant just wants to go to work every day like everyone else, but his past is haunting him. He wants to work, is trying to work, and people interviewing him for jobs seem to like him.
Then they check up on his past, a life he has firmly left behind, and another door is slammed firmly in his face.
The 44-year-old left home at just 13 for personal reasons and ended up living on the streets in Doncaster.
He began stealing from cars to be able to buy food and survive, before spending 13 years in and out of jail for drug dealing, robbery and burglary.
“When I was on the streets I was sleeping in greenhouses and at friends’ flats,” Mr Chant said.
“I used to break into cars and nick leather jackets and sell them. You could get £20 for a leather jacket which would last you a few days.
“That’s where my criminal activity started as I was hanging around with people in the area who also stole.
“I started to climb up the drug tree and when I started taking crack and heroin the crimes went up.
“It was just to fund the habit and just for survival.
“It was crazy to be on the streets at that age and it still lives with me now. Every now and again it hits me.”
He moved to Llanelli in 2007 to start a new life where he began volunteering at nearby drugs rehabilitation charity, Chooselife, before getting a job with the Red Cross two years later.
He added: “I was on heroin from 1996 for six years but I improved myself to get a chance in life.
“My turning point was when I last came out of prison in 2004 and then I moved to Llanelli in 2007 and I’d just had enough.
“I had a fresh canvas and thought ‘What do you want to do?’
“I gained a job with the Red Cross and was working at the Swansea office and I’ve worked with people with dementia, people who are on drugs, old ladies who are bedbound, people with cancer. I get on with the older generation.”
He also went to Grenfell following the fire in a tower block there in 2017 in which 72 people died.
“Six or seven of us from the Swansea office went up to help at Grenfell and we were giving emotional support to the people living in the building and helping the community.” But after working for the Red decided to resign in May to Cross for seven years, he pursue a job as a carer closer to his home in Llanelli. Since then he has struggled