JUNE is going to be a massive month for Ballingry man Paul Boggie, who is committed to tackling homelessness.

Paul, from Kirktoun Park, will be launching his book, which tells the story of how he went from being a drug addict to going on ceremonial duty at Buckingham Palace.

And he will be helping organise a major fundraising event at the Army facility in Brecon, Powys, with the homeless to benefit from both ventures.

In his book, Heroin to Hero, Paul, who moved to Ballingry a year ago after being brought up in Edinburgh, tells of how he got into real problem with drugs as a youngster and struggled to get off them.

Everything from cocaine and heroin to magic mushrooms were a regular staple for a young Paul.

Living in Craigentinny he became a regular on Portobello beach taking all sorts of drugs.

He said this week: "It was a terrible time for me and it was only when I was warned by doctors that I was simply killing myself that I decided to make the first moves to turn things around.

"I was 23, had a young daughter and if I didn't do something I was going to be a gonner.

"I was seeing life at the lowest ebb at the frontline and saw people really struggling too and people homeless."

He made a strong move to come off the all drugs and while he admits it was not at all easy, he found the determination and his family who had basically shunned him, started to realise he was working hard at the task.

"I joined a gym and started boxing and this helped greatly to get discipline into my life," he went on, "And while my family did not believe that I could do it they started to realise that things were getting better and started to help me.

"As I managed to stay away from drugs I thought I could maybe try to join the Army. I was a little nervous about it but the medics said I was fit and I was accepted in 2010 and I was in the Scots Guards.

"Amazingly within a few years I went from being snorting drugs on Portobello beach to being on duty guarding Her Majesty The Queen in London."

Paul suffered a bad back injury and left service a couple of years back but he still has a lot of close Army friends and he is working with them on the event at Brecon which will see a whole group of professional boxers taking on a series of severe tests over five days.

While Paul's book will see money raised to fight homelessness in Scotland only, the Brecon event will help tackle homelessness on both in Britain as a whole.

Scottish fighter Alfie Mcarthur, who is still a serving soldier, has persuaded a number of his colleagues to take part in the very strenuous event which Paul is helping promote.

Said Paul: "I have number of ideas that really came from my time on drugs, which I feel could help tackle homelessness in Scotland in a more progressive way than we currently see happening.

"Clearly it will take a lot of money but I hope that the book can get things started and then the pro-boxers event is something which has the support of the World Boxing Council so I hope that their social media outlets will help us promote it.

"Alfie has done brilliantly to get so many boxers to take part and it will be screened through You Tube and we hope it can be a big fundraiser for homelessness and the NHS.

"It will run from June 10 to June 15 and from what I have been told I am glad I will be watching and not taking part."