An ex-addict who spent almost 20 years in jail has shown off his incredible transformation after staying clean more than a year.
Shawn Penkenth, 45, lived a life of crime to pay for his out of control drug habit.
He started smoking cannabis at 15 and quickly spiralled into an addiction that saw him take 10 Valium a day as well as crack cocaine and cannabis.
Penkenth hit rock bottom when his dad fell ill and he was made homeless.
"Then I had two kids, but I was never able to hold them or even a job down," he told Grimsby Live.
The former addict has completely turned his life around since checking into rehab - and now even volunteers helping others who struggle with similar problems.
By the end of his last stint in jail, he was in "a really bad way" and dramatically underweight - at 6ft3in he weighed just 10 stone.
He credits police who saw him in the emaciated state and took him to a clinic with helping him kick the addiction.
"When I left HMP Humber around 15 months ago, two policemen met me and said they were taking me into a rehab clinic," he said.
"At the time, I was in a really bad way - I was 6ft 3in and only weighed 10 stone.
"I was mentally and emotionally dead. Coupled with my father falling ill, I knew I needed to make a change.
"I didn't want to be a disappointment anymore."
Shawn also saw the birth of his third child as a chance to change for the better.
He said: "I've spent 18 and a half years in prison overall. I went into the rehab centre on January 23 last year and I've now been clean for about 18 months.
"Now, I've got my first ever flat that I've furnished and decorated myself in Castleford and I volunteer at Reflections teaching other people like myself."
His friend, Daniel Fortune, 31, has been through a similar situation that led him to also being admitted to rehab.
He said: "I was taking drugs since the age of 13 and it was so bad at one point that I jumped out a third story window thinking I was on the ground floor and broke my back as well as fracturing my ankle.
"I couldn't walk for three months after doing it and that was when I knew I needed to change.
