A FORMER drug user who suffered a massive brain injury after taking ‘legal highs’ says gardening has given him a new lease of life.

Tom Fraser from Poole was just 21 when he collapsed after ingesting mephedrone, which was packaged as 'plant food' and purchased legally from a shop.

He stopped breathing for eight minutes and fell into a coma.

After coming around he spent a gruelling two months in hospital learning to walk and talk again.

Now, aged 32 and a father-of-four, Tom knows he is lucky to be alive.

And he credits his current job as a gardener for the charitable housing association BCHA as giving him a future.

Tom said: “I started taking drugs seriously around the age of 18 – amphetamine, cocaine and a lot of legal highs such as mephedrone which is marketed as a plant food but which you could buy in shops locally or online for as little as £20 for one gram.

“Over the course of three years my use of legal highs escalated until the day before Christmas Eve, 2009, I collapsed after a night out and suffered a massive hypoxic brain injury.

“The doctors said the legal highs were to blame and my life had only been saved by my age and strength.”

The brain injury left Tom with lasting short term memory loss, he was out of work for more than a year and lost his driving licence.

In time Tom says he recovered enough to take on a few short-term care jobs. But the problems from the brain injury and a messy break-up in his personal life led to a sharp decline in his mental health.

At this point Tom was sectioned, spending three and a half months in the psychiatric unit at St Ann’s Hospital in Poole.

While he was in St Ann’s he was taken to visit BCHA’s New Leaf allotment in Throop, to aid his recovery.

The allotment offers accredited horticulture qualifications and has helped many people with poor mental health find a sense of purpose, qualifications and even new careers.

Tom didn’t know it then, but gardening would go on to play a huge part in his life.

“After leaving St Ann’s I was given a place in supported accommodation at Millennium House by BCHA,” he said.

“I went in with huge debts, but I did gardening jobs, took training courses with BCHA’s help and when I moved out and got a flat I was debt-free and volunteered with the brain injury charity Headway.

“I then met my wife and had the first of our three children together.”

When Tom saw a job advertised last year with BCHA’s New Leaf Company, which provides residential and commercial repairs, as well as gardening, he remembered the help BCHA had given him and applied.

He said: “Getting that job has changed everything. I now work 8am-5pm, Monday to Friday as a gardener and it’s the best job I have ever had.

“Sometimes I come into contact with people who are obviously going through things I have and I want to reach out and tell them there is a way out from addiction.

“I also worry terribly about my own children and addiction.

“Legal highs were supposedly outlawed in 2016. But there are loopholes and you only have to see the amount of discarded bottles around our streets to see they are still a huge problem.

“You don’t know what is in a legal high. It could be anything. The risk just isn’t worth the half hour of effect they can give.

“I hope I can continue to work for BCHA for many years and I also hope eventually to play some part in mentoring others who are dependent on drugs but want to rebuild their lives like I have.

“BCHA has given me a second shot and I’m not going to waste it.”