Anthony | Point England

“As soon as we had our boy we ended up getting a key to a house, and since then we’ve been staying here for close to five years now.

My son, he’s five now he’s just started school up at Porotaka. He was probably the most inspiration I had, and probably if it wasn’t for him and his mum I probably would have been in prison or, I don’t know, in a coffin, or one of the two. I was a very bad boy back then and he kind of stopped me from doing what I wasn’t supposed to be doing.

I grew up in Ōtahuhu. I stayed there until I turned eight years old and then I moved to Three Kings, and I stayed in central until I hit 16 and then I ended up meeting my girlfriend, soon to be wife.

I kind of got into crime and so ended up robbing, stealing, cars and all that, and yeah I tried to join a gang, and it didn’t work out.

It was the best day of my life, man. I didn’t know if I could cry or smile at the same time, eh? He was about eight pounds when he came, I was just feeling more for his mother than myself, eh because she was put in the deep end at the time. She had to choose either, to stay with me, or stay with her mum, and she ended up coming along with me. I try and get him to do things because I don’t want to bring him up the way I was brought up, eh?  I just want him to have a better life than how I, how my life wasn’t planned out.”

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