On the eve of his 30th birthday, Bobby Bolton found himself living in a mouldy caravan on a derelict farm in Hertfordshire. His relationship of 11 years had just ended, the construction business he had spent five years building was collapsing and he only had a few hundred pounds left in the bank. “I had moved out of the flat I shared with my ex, borrowed money from her to buy this caravan and had such low self-esteem about the direction my life and career was headed that I isolated myself,” he says. “I couldn’t socialise and I was stooping so much when I walked that I felt myself getting back issues. My mum thought I was suicidal.”
She pleaded with him to come home and live with her in Wigan, but Bolton refused. “It felt like the ultimate defeat.” He compromised on a weekend visit instead. Driving the 200 miles north, Bolton soon ended up in the pub with old school friends. Several pints in, he saw something that would change his life.
