My name is Terry, I'm twenty. I have been in London for two and a half years. I grew up here when I was a kid and it's the only place I know where I can survive. I know the area, the background, the surroundings and I feel comfortable here. That's how I know I can survive.

I was born in Glasgow, I went back there when I was twelve but my dad moved to Turkey. My parents split up then and I went downhill from there. It was a case of my mum had had enough and no one wanted to know me. I went into care but I just felt out of place. As soon as I was sixteen and I could leave care I put myself onto the street. My foster parents didn't really care about me. They were just interested in the money. All I got was my three meals a day and a place to sleep at night,not a lot of attention. I was rarely involved with the family and it just upset me.

When I was at school I had a few friends,a selective group of friends as I do now. I keep with the people who I can trust and I know. Even then though I wasn't home . Even though I was born in Glasgow I knew England.

Day to day on the streets I generally get woken up at 7.00 am by the police. Then we sit about for about an hour and then go off to a Mission in Waterloo to get something to eat. Then sit about for the day. That's generally it until the evening when the handouts start. There are frightening moments on the street,frightening for other people not for me. I've woken up and found the bloke next to me with a knife sticking out of him,he was actually dead. It just didn't frighten me. I just got up as normal and the police were there. They asked me if I had seen anything but I hadn't because I was asleep. They told me to move on,so I did. I've woken up with a couple of people next to me dead,from old age or the drink or whatever. So I am used to it now.

I have been on the street for two and a half years constant,from about seventeen and a half. I have been on the streets on and off since about sixteen.I was going in to hostels for about a couple of months and then staying on the streets for a couple of months,back and forwards in a continuous motion.Then I finally decided that the streets were it for me and I have stayed on the streets ever since. I do like living on the streets.I find it an easy life. Its got everything that I want,freedom,I can come and go as I please, I'm not tied down to sleep in the same spot and that is what pleases me. I've got no ties whatsoever.

I have several friends on the street, there is four of them in total. I've got a mate called Zobar, he's from Greece and he sticks by us. I have also got my mate Jaz,he's from Scotland as well. He stays in a hostel and doesn't live on the street.He comes down and keeps an eye on us. There's Swany and his mate Steve who live in the subway like I do. They look out for me while I'm asleep and if any harm comes to me I know I can trust them.Friends are important because I was a loner and I found it hard to survive on my own.Friends are there when you have things to talk about,they look out for you and you look out for them.

I don't have a drug problem and I don't really have a drink problem.I like to drink and I have a drink everyday. We have a pint of Guinness at lunch time and I have been told that it's healthy for me. Sometimes I get carried away and get drunk.I don't touch drugs and I like to advise people not to use drugs but I can't stop them using them,it's up to them.Mainly, all the people who I know that use drugs inject them,which I'm not totally in agreement with.

I have been in prison in Northern Ireland.We got sentenced for three years but I got out in three weeks because of the peace talks. I have never been back to Northern Ireland since then because we got told that if you come back we will be arrested again. I loved it over there but I won't go back because I don't want to take the chance.

The only work I have ever really done is begging.I have become a pro at it as everyone says.I sit there and I change my voice for each different person. Young girls between sixteen and twenty four I use a sort of desperate, sweet voice. For working gentlemen I will use the polite form of asking without making it sound like I'm begging. Generally, I can make a tenner within the hour which is all I need. I have my one spot and there I make fifteen quid and that is all I need for the day, I can survive on that.

The only person I have is my dad and I call him once a week. He's in Turkey and I spend ten minutes on the phone and then he calls me back for about ten minutes as well. He knows that I'm on the street and he knows that I don't want to get off it because it's so easy. But it has made me realise that I can't live on the street all my life because it's getting me nowhere. My aim is that before the end of the year I will get myself my own flat and get settled again.At the minute I am taking each day as it comes.

I believe in God,I'm actually a Protestant,and I do believe he exists and he is there to look after me day-to-day. I confess my sins at St.Martin in the Fields and talk to the priest quite a lot.I know that God understands that what I am going through isn't easy and that I'm managing to survive. Begging isn't a great thing and I actually think it says in the bible not to beg.It is something that you have to do on the street and I think God recognises that and that is why I'm not being condemned for it.I pray every night and e very morning and I like to pray, to let God know that I'm O.K.It's my way of keeping in contact with him.I feel that God recognises me as who I am and what I am doing, even though some of the things I do are wrong.Sometimes I got to pray and sit there on my own and pray for three or four hours sometimes.God is the person I can talk to, he is the person I wish I had like a brother and God acts like a brother as well as a father to me.