From the bench to the pulpit
Gram's life story is a hard one to read in places. He tells it because he wants people to know that nobody is too far gone for God.
- 1964
Born in Middlesbrough
Christened Graham, but his Nana called him Gram and the name stuck. He was brought up by his grandparents on a council estate. With no relationship with his dad, and feeling pushed aside when his mum remarried, he grew up believing he didn't belong anywhere.
- Age 13
Into a gang
Small things like nicking from corner shops turned into robberies and fights. He boxed and played rugby by day and ran with a gang at night.
- Age 16
Locked up
After breaking into schools and youth clubs he was sent to a detention centre. It was all discipline and punishment, and no one helped him change.
- 1980s
The football years
Gram found the family he'd been looking for among Middlesbrough's football hooligans. He served four prison sentences for violence, was stabbed more than once, and still carries the scars, including a damaged chin and missing fingertips.
- 1992
Nothing left
Released from prison, he came home expecting a welcome and found none. His grandmother had died, his family had drifted away and his home was gone. He started on heroin and crack and was drinking close to 30 pints of cider a day.
- 1993
The bench
Sitting on a bench in Middlesbrough, Gram decided that was where he would live and die. While he was on the streets, a group of young Christians from a local church befriended him. He couldn't see where God would fit into a life like his.
- 9 Aug 1996
Six days in a coma
After years of barely eating, Gram collapsed. His organs were failing and he had pneumonia, hypothermia, septicaemia and severe malnutrition. Doctors asked his mother to agree to switch off his life support. While she wrestled with that, the young Christians came and prayed at his bedside. Gram woke up and started breathing on his own.
- Autumn 1996
Alpha, and a promise
Back on his estate, Gram saw kids growing up exactly as he had, and wanted to help them. The Oakwood Centre encouraged him onto an Alpha course, where he gave his life to Jesus. He promised that if Jesus showed him He was real, he would tell everyone for the rest of his life that Jesus loves them. He has never wanted to drink or take drugs again.
- Nov 1996
Back on the same bench
Three months after collapsing there, Gram was back on the bench where he had expected to die, this time telling others there was hope.
- 1999
Natasha
Gram met Natasha at a church in London and they married in 1999. They have two sons, both of whom have been to university. Natasha now runs a charity supporting vulnerable women.
- Today
Sowing Seeds
Gram founded Sowing Seeds Ministries to reach people heading down the road he took. He works in schools and prisons and mentors everyone from rough sleepers to professionals. Someone once shouted at him outside a prison that he was “hope on legs”. That's how he'd like to be remembered.
“I'm just a big arrow pointing in a different direction.”
Gram, speaking to the Daily Mirror in 2026
Read the full story
Gram tells his story in his own words in his book, One Step Beyond.
Book details and where to buy: to be added
Hear it from Gram himself
Gram tells his story in schools, prisons and churches across the UK and beyond.