A man who battled a drug addiction for over 20 years "beat his demons" by travelling around the country with a metal detector.
Stephen Gray was born and bred in Birkenhead and developed a drug addiction during the 1980s. The 54-year-old told the ECHO he spent much of his youth "on a dodgy corner of the Ford estate or Toxteth trying not to get ripped off, beat up or arrested".
Stephen, who now lives in Worcestershire, said: "For 24 years the scourge of serious addiction darkened my soul and blighted my family." But he added at the same time he developed another "obsession" - metal detecting. Stephen said he started the hobby in around 1988 in Birkenhead Park.
