Father’s Day is especially meaningful for Trevor Lindsay.

His commitment to his daughter Treasure, encouraged him to kick the drug habit he’d had for years.

The 54-year-old believes God saw him through that “hard and painful” process; he’d tried several times to do it on his own, without success.

“I had a lot of lows during my time using and relapsed about seven times before I finally got it right,” said Mr Lindsay, a cameraman at ZBM. “But what actually prompted me to get my life together was my daughter. She was really the catalyst.”

Mr Lindsay attended Sunday School and church with his grandmother, and started experimenting with marijuana when he was 9. “Back when I was young that’s what our parents did — had their children go to church,” he said.

“It’s not like these days where children have a choice. The environment where I lived made it easy for me to be a part of that lifestyle because that was all I saw.

“Up until I was 35 or 37 years old I was using some type of substance regularly so, to now be free of any substance is a miracle. Now I’m living on my own terms, on God’s terms.”

His “breaking point” came after an accident six years ago. Treasure was about to celebrate her fourth birthday and Mr Lindsay didn’t want her to see him in that state.

“My face was all swollen and big and I was almost completely unrecognisable,” he said. “I knew I had to do something to change my life.”

Today he’s just grateful to be on the other side.

He credits a large part of his sobriety to his faith.

“Spirituality played a large part in my recovery programme,” he said. “That’s when my understanding of God, a being larger than myself, became real. I submitted, and now my relationship with God has increased.

“I started to see He had always been there all along. I mean, if God knows the end before the beginning, then He knew I would be lying flat on my back all those times and when I would look up the only thing I could look up to was Him.

“I wouldn’t have overcome this stuff by myself so I needed a spiritual awakening. I thank God for listening to the prayers of my family and grandmother, who is now deceased. She prayed with members of my church and they had my back. I know that God answered their prayers without a shadow of a doubt.”

The biggest lesson he’s learnt over the years is you can’t run from your problems.

“I have a few issues that I have had to deal with in my life — abandonment, rejection and abuse — so the biggest lesson is you can’t run from it. You can’t hide from the things life has thrown at you. You have to express yourself, talk and get help so you can move past it,” he said. “I also know that everyone in life has something they’ve had to deal with. But it’s how we choose to deal with it that counts.”

He claims he’s now in the best shape of his life. Soon after he recovered he discovered a love of competitive running. He regularly places first or second in his age group.

“It’s really good to know that talent was deep down inside of me,” Mr Lindsay said.

“I saw [running coach] Mike Watson recently and he told me with what I’m doing now, if I had started training back in high school we would be competing together. So to know how far I’ve come in such a short period of time, I’m grateful. I really appreciate where God has brought me and where I am today.

“I’m also really grateful for my daughter. I named her Treasure and she has been the biggest blessing in my life.”