As manager of Canterbury's Catching Lives centre for the homeless, Terry Gore sees many clients who are at rock bottom. In a searingly candid interview, he tells Gerry Warren how he is painfully aware of their struggles, having dragged himself out of a life of rough sleeping, beset by drink, drugs and crime.

Terry Gore was already an alcoholic by the time he left school.

Brought up in poverty after his father gambled away the already meagre family budget, his difficult childhood was deprived and chaotic.

It was a tough start in life for the young boy from Croydon which, not surprisingly, set him on the wrong path.

“My way of dealing with my problems was just to become very dishonest,” he said.

“It was my default. It was just easier to lie, but that affects the way you relate to people.”

At the age of 28, having eventually secured himself a job – ironically in the fines office of an inner-London magistrates’ court – he was sacked for stealing and convicted of theft from an employer.

“I was so lucky to stay out of prison, but having lost my job, I lost my home and the drinking just got a lot worse,” he said.

“I soon ended up on the streets and in trouble with the law again – arrested for fighting, theft and criminal damage, you name it.

“I had reached a point where I accepted this is how my life would be: on the streets, where I would probably die.”

Still plagued by an alcohol problem and needing cash for it, he found ways of making money by re-selling stolen travel cards and shoplifting.

He even spent a month in Brixton jail for not paying his fines.

But a turning point came when he saw someone selling the Big Issue and decided to give it a go.

“I spent the next 18 months selling it and that was the start of my route back,” he said.

“It put some structure back in my life because I had to be organised, at my regular pitch and sober – and it meant I didn’t need to steal any more.”

He went on to work at an exclusive golf course as a caddy - his employers giving him an advance to allow him to put down a deposit.

“I learned that you have to try and take opportunities, and the more you do, often the better your chances in life.”

"I hurt a lot of people and did a lot of damage... what I am now doing is trying to put some of that right" - Terry Gore

By then, Terry had met a new partner, Ruth, but was still drinking.

It led to what he describes as the worse episode in his life, when he beat her up while drunk.

“All through my life, I had this thing in my head that I was still better than some people on the streets because I had never hit a woman,” he said.

“But I became the thing that I loathed most.

“That more than anything led me to give up alcohol.

“I decided I had reached rock bottom and needed to get help with my problem, and I haven’t had a drink since March 31, 1999.”

The couple survived the ordeal and have now been married for 20 years.

Terry’s life was to change again in 2007, when they moved to Deal after Ruth was offered a new job with a charity in the town.

During a chance meeting, he was told the Scrine Foundation in Canterbury (later to become Catching Lives) was looking for sessional workers to help run the homeless shelter.

“My background was largely the reason they took me on, because I could actually relate to clients and they hadn’t got anyone like that,” he said.

Terry, 53, has worked there ever since, promoted to charity manager in 2012, and now also works as a counsellor in schools.

“I view the first part of my life as very destructive,” he said.

“I hurt a lot of people and did a lot of damage.

"What I am now doing is trying to put some of that right.

"I want to be able to get to my grave and say that I have done more good than harm.”

Terry Gore believes one of the biggest challenges facing the homeless is a lack of self-esteem and confidence.

“The longer you are on the streets, the longer you are out there with people looking down on you; it just bleeds away,” he said.

“It’s one of the main reasons we do so many activities with our clients because that’s how you learn and get better.

“It’s the same as drugs and alcohol: it’s not the end of the world if you relapse. Most will. It’s about perseverance.”

Catching Lives has been credited with saving the lives of many.

• To find out more about the organisation and its work, visit catchinglives.org