A FORMER heroin addict from Tavistock has turned his life around by sailing across the world to visit a notorious prison.

Sam Todd, aged 22, took part in a documentary which saw him sail to Venezuela with TV presenter and comedienne Sadie Kaye.

He and two other persistent young offenders joined Sadie visiting one of the world's most notorious jails — Venezuela's anarchic and violent El Rodeo Prison — to be shown where a life of crime can lead.

Along the way, Sam and his travel companions Geoffrey Nganga, 20, from London, and Chris Tahanney, 20, from Glasgow, met Brian, an ex-con living on an island in the Caribbean who has become a pillar of the local community and showed the young offenders there could be a life other than crime.

All three were selected for the project by The Prince's Trust, for which Sadie is an ambassador.

Since returning from the life-changing trip, Sam is now clean of drugs and teaching sailing in Devon. In his spare time he works with the Discovery Sailing Project, which uses sailing as a therapy to help other young offenders.

He's planning to sail back to the Caribbean with Sadie and a fresh team to help build orphanages in Haiti later this year.

A film documenting their journey, entitled Sailing Miss Sadie, was shown on the Community Channel last week and can also be viewed online by visiting www.communitychannel.org.