LEANING back in the chair behind his cluttered desk, Britain’s first gangster to become a bishop smiles and says: “Prince William has nicked my best ideas. I’m not joking, it’s true.”
But ex-enforcer and reformed drug dealer Mick Fleming doesn’t mind if the future king copies his revolutionary way of turning life around for Britain’s homeless.
Arthur Edwards / The SunEx-enforcer and reformed drug dealer Mick Fleming is now a pastor who helps Britain’s homeless[/caption]
PAWilliam and Kate visited Mick’s Church on the Street three years ago[/caption]
We are in Pastor Mick’s first floor office at a former Methodist Chapel in Burnley, Lancs, which has become home to his Church On The Street.
He says: “When you walk in here, it’s full of hope.
“It would help a lot of people if the Prince can replicate what we are doing here all over the country.”
It was here William and Kate came three years ago to see how this tiny church feeds up to 60 people a day who are homeless or cannot afford to cook a meal.
Pastor Mick champions a one-stop-shop for supporting rough sleepers, bringing healthcare, housing, addiction, employment and mental healthcare, all under a single roof.
It is a concept similar to the Prince of Wales’s Homewards initiative, which unites the private, public and voluntary sectors to help the homeless at six UK locations.
Staff at Pastor Mick’s church have also helped dozens of addicts off drugs and booze for the first time.
And when the royals visited in January 2022, he watched in awe as Prince William helped a boy of nine who was grieving for his mum after she died from alcoholism, age 29.
Mick, 52, says: “It was just so sad. When I knew Prince William was coming, I invited this lovely little kid with his grandma.
“Because we had to keep the royal visit a secret, the young lad thought he was going to be meeting a footballer like David Beckham.
“But when Prince William told him, ‘My mum died as well’, it was a massive moment.
“I watched this boy switch from being disappointed with Prince William to recognising someone who understood what he was going through.
“And then Prince William said, ‘Don’t listen to what anybody says about your mum.
“If it’s bad, don’t believe it. You loved your mum.
“Your mum loved you. That’s it. That’s all you need to know’.
“Suddenly I’m thinking, ‘That’s Princess Diana he’s talking about’.
“But the boy didn’t care that this man was talking about the most famous woman in the world.
“He was talking about his mum and they connected. It was really powerful.
“Was it good fortune or divine intervention? I don’t know.”
What Mick does know is that, thanks to the royal visit, people in power suddenly stepped up.
‘INCREDIBLE STORIES’
He says: “Unfortunately, drug addicts and homeless people are the lepers of the 21st Century and people don’t particularly like them.
“They are often unreliable, they won’t turn up for appointments, they might even tell you to f*** off.
“They’re the ones that need help the most and there are more of them than ever.
“I wanted the NHS to work from here, too, but I couldn’t get them to come.
“So when I found out Prince William and Princess Catherine were going to be visiting, I invited the chief execs from the NHS.
“All of a sudden, it was ‘Oh, Pastor Mick, I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding’. They were there at the door.
“Because we’d had a royal visit, people wanted to talk to us.
“They helped us get mental health experts in here. Whether you believe in royalty or not, as people they are all right.”
Mick went on to write a book about how being raped as a child, and the death of his sister the very next day, led to him becoming a brutal gangster, before he found God and turned his life around.
Prince William provided the introduction to Blown Away: From Drug Dealer To Life Bringer, which has become an international bestseller.
Now father-of-four Mick has written a new book, Walk In My Shoes, which recounts incredible stories of how the lives of some people he has met have been transformed.
A young Wills walking next to mum DianaGetty
Walk In My Shoes by Pastor Mick Fleming is out now
One of them was a prostitute he first crossed paths with 25 years ago in a drug den — and is now a famous singer.
He says: “I used to go up and down the country doing lots of bad things.
“If you were in a town you didn’t know and needed drugs, the best way was to find a prostitute because they always know where the drugs are.
“I spent two days with this girl and we were using. On the second day, she said, ‘Will you put your arms around me?’.
“I put my arms around her and she started to sing.
“My heart used to be proper hard. I didn’t have much time for emotion, but I felt myself welling up. She was singing like an angel.
“She was crying and she said a prayer for me. I couldn’t get my head round it.”
Decades later, the woman would re-enter Mick’s life.
He revealed that, just before King Charles’ 2023 Coronation, he and his wife Sarah were invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party.
Mick says: “It was like being on an acid trip.
“I had the King of England on one side and Lionel Richie on the other.
Later, I posted some pictures on social media and I got a message off this lady. It was the prostitute.
‘IN THE MIDDLE OF ROYALTY’
She said, ‘I’ve been following you for a couple of years. Both our lives have changed’.
“I looked at her picture. She’s now a megastar.”
Wills and Kate have never forgotten the unusual bishop who showed them how it was possible to help addicts and the homeless turn their lives around.
In 2023, the Princess of Wales invited Mick and Sarah to her Together At Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey.
He says: “That was bizarre. We kept being sent further and further to the front.
“Suddenly, we were near to two very nice chairs that are different to the rest. My missus says, ‘Is that the King and Queen?’.
“They’d put us bang in the middle of the royals. And there she was.
“The Princess (Kate) shook my hand and held it as we talked about mental health. She even thanked me for being there.
“The funniest thing was because we were sat there with the royals, they’re the first to leave. So, me and my missus just followed.
“The King and Queen got into a Rolls-Royce, the others got into black Range Rovers.
“We came out . . . and got on the bus.”
Walk In My Shoes by Pastor Mick Fleming is out now, published by SPCK.
Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club.
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
