Stephen

Stephen Docherty, team captain Scotland

Team Captain, Scotland– Melbourne 2008
Age: 37
Step’s Story:

Before I got involved in the Homeless World Cup I was used to doing nothing, absolutely nothing. Then, I got the chance to take part in the training and meet other people and I began to feel part of something instead of feeling isolated, and hopeless, useless and worthless - I actually started to believe in myself a little bit, started to have a little bit of faith in myself.
 
About week before I went to Australia, I got a phone call saying there were problems in getting me a visa. The Australian authorities, quite rightly so, were questioning whether to let me into the country or not. My spirits took a nose-dive, I thought, all my hard work and effort, to get myself clean, It disheartened me a bit, but I had no intentions of going back onto drugs. I was absolutely determined inside that nothing was going to take me go back to drugs. But then it came through and I was officially part of the Team and on the way to Melbourne to represent my country.
 
At the airport we were all in our tracksuits, people were looking at us, as if to say, “who’s them boys?” So it was some turnaround for me. The team we had been in and out of treatment centres, we tore our families apart, tore other lives apart. Some of us ended up in prison, myself included. Then to sit at that airport, with people looking at you, coming up and asking who you were, what were you doing, and where were you going. It made you feel good. It made me feel worth something. It was brilliant. I’ll never forget it.
 
Through getting picked for the Homeless World Cup team, it made me see that my life is worth living. I don’t need to write myself off, because I’m quick to do that if I’m having a bad day. But getting picked for the national squad, it just changed my whole way of thinking. It let me see that people did think I was something, that I meant something, that I could be something. People believed in me.
 
Since I’ve come back from Melbourne, I’ve managed to get a house, I’ve done it all up, done it myself.  And my daughter comes up and stays. And I’m trusted that much, not only by her, and her mother, but my daughter’s pals’ mothers and fathers trust me, because they’ll let their daughters come up and stay overnight in my house. So I’m getting more responsibility every day. And I’ve no doubt in my mind that it’s all thanks to getting picked for that team. Being given a little bit of responsibility, then another little bit, and getting told to encourage people instead of discouraging them.