Menu
Back to News ListPreviousNext

Paul Hannaford

As part of our Personal Development programme, and our commitment to helping prepare Croxley Danes’ students for living safely in the wider world, we invited a Paul Hannaford to deliver a talk to all students on the dangers associated with illegal recreational drugs, including the risks posed by ‘county lines gangs’, possession and use of, and addiction to such substances. 

On 30th November, Paul Hannaford shared his first-hand experiences of involvement with gangs and his own struggles with addiction. He has worked in numerous schools over the years, and won awards for his work on raising awareness of the dangers of drugs.

Below is an account of the talk by Roye S and Tristan G in Year 7, who are part of the journalism club.

****

Recently Paul Hannaford, a former drug addict and gang leader, visited us at Croxley Danes to discuss the dangers of drugs, and how drug addiction nearly cost him his life.

Paul was in year 7 once like everyone in this school. He was a normal boy with loving parents and 4 caring brothers. However, one day he took a quick route home which led him into the path of the wrong group of people and towards the cruel dangers of drugs. This decision would crush his dreams of a successful career in football and very nearly destroy his life.

Paul was introduced to drugs and quickly became addicted to several dangerous substances, all classified as Class A. He no longer went to football practice after school and instead found himself in occupied apartments known as drug dens. He was in deep with local drug gangs and a group of year 10’s at his school asked him to distribute some drugs for them. Feeling pressured, Paul decided to do what they asked. That moment plagued him for over 20 years. Because of that one moment he was forever indebted to this gang and eventually found himself leading them. He dropped out of school and the only way he had of earning a living was through distributing drugs with his gang. He stole from his own family and from shops to feed his uncontrollable addictions and ended up in jail 15 times for his crimes. The whole experience was painful to recount for Paul.

But Paul did control his addictions and turned his life around. He found forgiveness from his family and has been reunited with his daughter who he feared would never accept his past mistakes. Paul now travels around schools in the London and Hertfordshire areas to tell his story to school students and warn them of the dangers of drug addiction and the harm it can cause both to individuals and their families. He has given lectures to over 750,000 students so far and hopes to have shared his message with 1 million school students.

Paul’s story helped us to be more aware of how innocently drug addiction can begin and how we can protect ourselves from it. We were very grateful for Paul for coming to Croxley Danes school and sharing his experiences and answering the many questions we had for him. Paul’s positive message is something we can all learn from and you can find out more about his story on his website. Paul has also released a book - The Unconscious Kid, which tells his story in more detail and we are lucky enough to have a copy in the school library.

Back to News ListPreviousNext

Categories

Category / All Articles

Archives