ONE of the best things about my job is the opportunity it gives me to hear stories of inspiration from others.

Last week I met with a group of mental health workers who also have their own lived experience of mental health challenges. Patrick (I use his name with permission) told us about a moment in his life which had been a real turning point for him.

It was the moment that he knew that his life had changed for the better. He recalled his own experience of living through depression and how for 32 years of his life he had prayed to God each night that he would not wake up the next morning. ‘I didn’t want to keep living,’ he said.

‘My life was a destructive one. I would steal the milk from your tea and then come back to take the sugar as well.’

Somehow, Patrick found the will to keep going and fought his way out of alcohol and drug use. In a big to build a new life for himself he enrolled at university and started taking courses there. Patrick checked his bank account one day and not being used to having much money, was surprised to find there was £100 in it that he did not recognise.

Instead of simply celebrating his good fortune and withdrawing the money, he went into the bank to speak to the lady behind the counter.

He told her that he thought a mistake had been made and that £100 had been put into his account in error.

The lady laughed and said it was not very often that a customer came in complaining about having too much money in their account!

In fact in turned out that the money had been given to Patrick quite legitimately. It had been an incentive given to new students rewarding them for attendance at a certain number of courses, however he had not known about this so it had come as a complete surprise.

‘That was the moment I knew that I really had changed” Patrick said. “Even my family couldn’t believe it. There was me with a bit of extra money – but instead of just keeping it ‘I went in to check, just in case it wasn’t actually mine. I would never have dreamed of doing that before.’

Without having to know any more details about his past, it was clear from the way Patrick told the story that this new attitude was a significant change in comparison to the way he had once lived his life.

Patrick doesn’t claim that life these days is perfect – however he is proud to have learned to live a life he describes as one of quiet contentment. He makes a conscious effort to find things to be grateful for every day and spends a lot of his time helping others less fortunate than himself. These are both things which have helped him find satisfaction in life.

Hearing Patrick’s story made me reflect on the fact that there is not a person out there who hasn’t made mistakes in their past. We all have. However, rather than dwelling on them, it seems to me that real success is to refuse to give up and to learn from any mistakes we might have made.

It is never too late to start rebuilding life in the way we would like it to be and it is never too late to change things for the better. Patrick’s new attitude in the bank that day was a wonderful example of this and an inspiration to all of us that were there to hear his story.