Paul Boggie: From Heroin to Hero
BOXING has a proud history of supporting great causes. So it’s no surprise that the sport has got right behind a remarkable man whose amazing story is eclipsed only by his ambition to help others.
Paul Boggie, 41, has been to hell and back. Growing up close to Portobello Beach near Edinburgh, his early journey was a real-life version of the movie Trainspotting: addicted to heroin at 18, via weed, magic mushrooms and a good deal else. By 23, he was warned by doctors that he was very close to killing himself. Although already settled with a young daughter, Paul was close to rock bottom, surrounded by the desperate and homeless.
“I had to turn things around quickly, or accept I was going to die very soon,” says Paul.
The loving family he had grown up in was now ready to give up on him, but somehow Paul scraped together the willpower to kick all forms of drugs in a short space of time. Next step was joining a gym, where he started boxing for fitness.
“Boxing helped to give me the discipline I needed to stay clean. I’d tried and failed in previous years before finding a surge of determination to give up drugs once and for all. When my family saw I was serious about it and was also working hard to keep fit, they were very supportive.”
Once fully recovered, Paul gained the confidence to try for the Army. He was open from the outset about his previous addictions, but medics said he was fit enough and at the relatively late age of 30, he was accepted in 2010.
Paul’s maturity and discipline made him a natural for the prestigious Household Division and he was welcomed into the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards – “the finest regiment in the British Army,” he chips in proudly.
The transformation is mind-boggling: from beachfront addict to guarding HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace in less than a decade.
It was during his ceremonial duties in London that Paul stiffened his resolve to finish a book about his experiences. The story had already been taking shape in his mind for a number of years and, embarking on pre-deployment training for a tour of Afghanistan, he decided to call his memoir From Heroin to Hero.
Fate then dealt a cruel blow. While still on training, Paul was badly injured in a car crash, breaking his back and leaving him unable to carry the sort of weights and kit he would need to lift routinely on tour. He remained in a training role before leaving the Army in 2015.
Driven by an ultimate goal to use his unique experiences to help others, Paul set his sights on a career as a drugs counsellor, but his ongoing use of opioid painkillers such as Tramadol, as part of his long term recovery from injury, was seen as incompatible with joining the profession at that stage. He focused instead on the homeless and decided to resurrect his book as the basis of a major campaign.
“I thought there would never be a book, because I wasn’t a hero. But once I’d decided to make a real go of it, I wrote for three days solid without any sleep.”
Coronavirus and lockdown were unable to stop From Heroin to Hero hitting Amazon and other outlets, but a major charity pro boxing event promoted by Greg Steene, Mo Prior and Johnny Edwards, scheduled for four days in June this year, was inevitably postponed. All profits were earmarked for helping the homeless, vulnerable children and the elderly.
After lining up 12 pro boxers including super-middleweight Pete Nurdin, light-heavyweight Geoff Dixon and super-lightweight Rhys Saunders, pulling the event was a huge disappointment. Undeterred, Paul resorted to Plan B. Seven fighters, led by retired featherweight champ Ben ‘Duracell’ Jones, welterweight Alfie McArthur and Dixon again, joined Paul in the Yorkshire Dales for a series of hardcore fitness tests over five days, not least covering 100 miles on foot.
The guys were appearing on YouTube throughout and Paul continues to add live appeals and activities on Facebook as he works towards his initial target of £15,000. Hannah Rankin, Scotland’s first female boxing world champion, has helped the campaign to gain momentum, as has the World Boxing Council.
“I have a loads of ideas and valuable first-hand experience from my dark days on drugs,” says Paul. “My mission, in an ideal world, would be to wipe out homelessness in the UK. That’s a tall order, I know, but I’m trying to make a start with the book and raising as much money as possible through events. I couldn’t have got this far without the generous support of the boxing world – and I know this is just the beginning.”
From Heroin to Hero, by Paul Boggie, is available on Amazon, price £12.99 in paperback or £9.99 for the Kindle edition