‘I went from footballer to scavenging in skips to find food’
ONE Sunday night in 2007 Enton Barefoot found himself sifting through a skip on an industrial estate for discarded pastries.
Loading his pockets with pasties and sausage rolls, he then went back to his tent, pitched under some trees on the edge of a football pitch, where he tried to fall asleep.
He had just turned 30.
It was a far cry from life growing up in a tiny village in west Wales. Back then, in Johnston, Enton could look forward a home-cooked meal on the table every night.
In those days the young Enton had the world at his feet. Literally. He had just signed a contract to play semi-professional football and he was well on his way to realising his childhood dream of emulating his idol, Welsh striker Ian Rush.
But by his mid-20s Enton was addicted to alcohol, could hardly hold down a job and had developed a £400-a-week cocaine habit.
Poignantly, fishing around for food in that skip wasn’t the lowest point in Enton’s life. By then he had at least been sober and off drugs for some time.
But the moment he kicked his habit, which had nearly destroyed his life, was the moment he got kicked out on to the streets. It’s been a long journey back to a normal life but one which Enton, and Enton alone, decided to embark on through sheer will and determination.
Enton enjoyed an idyllic childhood, typical of rural Pembrokeshire where everyone knew everybody – but he struggled to find his own identity.
Enton started playing for his local team aged nine. Football was his “everything” and he practised and practised until he collapsed.
His hard work and dedication paid off and in 1992 he became a semipro with Pembroke Borough aged just 16.
But then disaster struck. In a freak accident, while working at Haverfordwest Mart, he was kicked in the knee by a bullock, which ended his footballing career before it had even started.
Professional football was out of the question. Around the same time
Enton had his heart broken by his “first love”.
Just before his 18th birthday, with money in his pocket from a well-paid car apprenticeship, Enton decided to move to Leicestershire and stay with his dad’s family.
Living with his grandparents, rentfree, Enton revelled in his newfound freedom. Somehow, slowly, and without really realising, life spiralled out of control. At first it was just socialising with friends in the pub. But within three years the cans of lager in his fridge were just for show. At that stage Enton kept the “real drink” of Jack Daniel’s hidden in the hip flasks he used to collect.
Then came the drugs, mainly cocaine and ecstasy.
But Enton can now admit he was chasing a feeling that was never going to be real. “It was like a spiritual dream that became my nightmare,” he said.
Eventually he realised enough was enough and something had to change. At that moment he decided to kick his habits for good.
It was at that point in his life that Enton found himself on the streets.
Unemployed and with nowhere to stay, having been kicked out of his dad’s caravan, Enton found himself under an arched railway bridge in Loughborough in September 2007. Despite this, he was still resolutely sober and off drugs, determined he would turn his life around.
Living in his tent was a lonely existence. He steered well clear of the local “addicts and winos”, saying that to succumb to the temptations they offered would have been the easy option.
He kept himself to himself, sheltering in the local library by day and his tent by night.
After eight months had passed Enton came across a local homeless charity called the Exairo Trust. The charity dished out hot soup to the homeless and through them Enton managed to secure a house as well as voluntary employment.
In 2009 the Exairo Trust offered him a part-time job and then, a year later, a full-time role as a support worker. He has since gone on to study for a BA (Hons) degree in sports management at Loughborough University.
Today, Enton is in a relationship with a “wonderful” woman called
Vicky and they live happily and contentedly in Loughborough.
“I didn’t recover from my addiction by just stopping ‘using’,” he said. “I recovered by making a new life for myself where, in the first instance, it was easier to use but eventually it was easier for me not to use.
“If I didn’t create a new life, then all the issues that brought me to my addiction would eventually catch up with me again and I wasn’t about to let that happen.”
He has even returned to sport and now enjoys running and weight training. Drinking alcohol, however, will forever be off the cards.
“It really does fascinate me how Vicky and our friends are able to drink as part of having a good time,” mused Enton. “It is cathartic watching them drink alcohol responsibly.
“Before recovery I would have gone into an insecurity tailspin, anxiously waiting for the first couple of pints to take away the butterflies before I then went on to the miain course of beers, spirits and cocaine.” ■ Enton Barefoot has written a book about his life called Laid Bare. For more information visit https://therealbarefoot.co.uk/