Humans of Core Clapton: Stephen's story

“I was born in North London 1953 from Irish parents; mum was a nurse and dad a second world war veteran. I was one of eight children, but at the time it was normal to see very large Irish families, they were still very religious and all that...

I left school at 15 and found myself quite lost. I wasn’t encouraged by my family to find a career so I just hopped from one job to another until at eighteen, out of boredom, I fell in love with the most important thing: the guitar. It helped me so much throughout life, music helps you escape all the misery you have around, it takes you to a different place… I remember reading a book by a guy called Dan Morgan and he said that if you play guitar you’ll never be short of friends. That has been true throughout my life...

By the time I was twenty, I had a very serious addiction problem. It was quite nasty, I just could not keep away from drugs and alcohol. I got help from a community rehab centre and that literally saved my life. At this centre I started Art Therapy and a few years later I decided to become an artist. I spent time learning from Parisian artists and once I returned to North London I was doing my own paintings. I had my share of success, but that never mattered… when you really love something, all the rest is not so relevant.

Painting and music essentially kept me sane. But lately my shoulder was really playing up with me. I could hardly move it for 6 weeks, and that meant no painting or playing… I was taking strong painkillers that hardly touched the pain. The NHS put me on a waiting list of months for some physiotherapy, and I was really feeling low. That’s until I asked the people at Core Clapton if they could help me... I haven’t looked back since! My osteopath Ruby was so good at relieving tensions in my shoulder that everything quickly lifted, it was a blessing. I started feeling much better mentally and was able to slowly get back to my passions. There was no way I could afford getting therapy in any other place. Core Clapton concession prices meant I could get a whole course of treatments, and that’s not all! They are still helping me by teaching me to use the computer so that I will be able to upload my artwork and music… so stay tuned, my art is online soon!”