A former addict is helping others find a route to a better life by restoring tractors, trains, and even ships.
Billy Brown, 35, was born in Dundee, but in 1995 moved to Manchester, where he and his mother lived in a tiny council flat.
He said: “From the age of 11 I was brought up in poverty in a single-parent household on a Manchester council estate after my dad moved back to Scotland.
“I was a very practical child, not great in the eyes of school and academia. My secondary school actually ran an engineering training course and at 15-and-a-half, I was offered an apprenticeship, a job for life.
“My mum who I lived with at the time couldn’t wait to get rid of me, and my dad – an alcoholic – talked me out of the apprenticeship and told me to move back to Scotland and said he would change, he would give up the drink.
He lived in a one-bedroom bungalow, and he said he would get a two-bedroom house for us both.”
© Supplied by Billy Brown
Billy – then 15 years old – spent three years sleeping on his dad’s sofa in Fife, before being evicted due to overcrowding.
The eviction led to homelessness for Billy, who had no other family in the area.
He said: “I’d huddled up in Tesco’s trolley shelter on a couple of occasions and walked around Cupar at nights asking for any leftover food because I was hungry.
“I wasn’t entitled to any benefits as I had no fixed abode.”
The young man soon fell in with a bad crowd and began using drugs on a regular basis.
He said: “Up until 18-and-a-half I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink or use any drugs. I was a good kid with a £90 a week plumbing apprenticeship. My employer then let me go because he thought I was a liability being in the homeless system with zero family support.
“Before long I had picked up an addiction and found myself in a dark place, with no family or support to pull me out, I was in this situation for over a year.”
A chance meeting with a friend, however, led to him joining a course at Adam Smith College before becoming a Network Rail apprentice at the age of 21.
© Supplied by Billy Brown
The new job gave Billy comfort but as his career advanced he began to notice something was missing.
He said: “I started to realise no matter how much money I made, or nice things I bought, I was never happy. I started to wonder how many people are brought up in my situation and are never lucky enough to find a way out.
“So I left the railway and created ‘Restore To Factory Settings’ – an organisation where we do practical programmes, a lot of it around the restoration of all types of vehicles from motorcycles to tractors, trains and even ships.
“The secret to our programmes is unlocking a person’s mind, and putting them in a place where they are doing something they want to do.”
The non-profit organisation, which was founded in 2018, has since helped scores of people pull their lives together, and has worked alongside other groups such an NHS Scotland.
The founder added: “There’s a lot of practical talent out there and because it doesn’t fit in with our academic system, or don’t receive enough support, these people never get chance in life.
“They are thrown to the wayside like a piece of trash, pick up addictions, become isolated or involved in crime and they can’t find their way back.
“People from the most deprived backgrounds can still reach their full potential with the right support network around them.”
Contact the group by emailing: [email protected]
