It takes a brave man to walk around Leeds city centre in nothing more than a bathrobe and a shower cap but this is all in a day’s work for Chris Sylvester. This unique attire has become much more than a gimmick for Chris and a necessary part of promoting his social enterprise – Getting Clean – which supports those with addiction as well as the homeless community. 

Chris, who was born in Armley, launched the initiative in November 2021 after almost 26 years of active addiction that saw him experience many of the issues that he’s now helping people to overcome. 

Getting Clean is a bold, unapologetic profit-for-purpose soap brand that donates half of its profits to addiction charities and Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (LEROs) across the UK.

“These bars of soap reduce crime and grime at the same time,” quips Chris. “Our mission is simple: to ensure all addicts have access to peer support and employment opportunities.”

Chris, and the social enterprise, provide the kind of support that he perhaps needed himself when growing up.

“My mum always did her best but I had a bit of a difficult childhood,” recalls Chris. “I found it difficult to learn in a conventional setting and to fit in. I just felt different to everyone else, I felt like I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t good enough. I had lots of insecurities and low self-esteem.”

At the age of 12, Chris was introduced to heroin in the school toilets, which opened the doors to over two decades of active addiction, something he describes as a ‘nightmare existence’.

“Drugs gave me everything, they enabled me to get through life without having to deal with any emotions or feelings,” says Chris. “But ultimately they took everything from me. I was in this vicious cycle where I was destroying myself.”

During those 26 years Chris experienced everything from prison and institutions to homelessness and violence and much more besides. When the path to recovery presented itself, it was actually by accident.

“I had just been discharged from hospital and needed to see my probation officer (PO),” explains Chris. “I couldn’t stop using and knew I was going to test positive and be recalled to prison.”

When Chris arrived at the probation office, by chance he met a man who had managed to get clean after being addicted to heroin after attending Mutual Aid meetings. His PO suggested doing the same.

“It sounded really attractive but it sounded like it was somebody else, not me,” he says. “But I agreed to go, obviously, to avoid going back to prison.”

In a serendipitous twist of fate, the first person Chris met at this first meeting was one of his old dealers. 

“He took me to one side and said ‘if you carry on using there’s three things waiting for you – prison, institutions and death’. I realised what he was saying was right.”

Despite being convinced that there would be ‘nobody like him’, Chris was captivated by what he saw and heard, engaged in the 12-step recovery and managed to clean himself up. 

“When [other members of the group] started talking about what was going on for them, and how they were feeling, it was such a relief,” Chris enthuses. “They were talking about how I had been feeling for years.”

Recovery was a huge step for Chris and inspired him to accept a job supporting homeless people and those with addiction. But he felt he could do more with his lived experience and so decided to get some of his friends together from recovery and set up his own enterprise. 

The group put conservation work at its heart, whether that was litter picking, recycling or creating wildflower meadows. Basically anything they could do to improve their communities. 

“People loved it because it allowed us to take the focus off sitting round in a circle and talking,” explains Chris. “Being out, being of service and making a difference allowed the conversations to flow much more naturally. The work we did showed that the people rebuilding their lives, after addiction, could actually rebuild communities and challenge stigma. It became pathways to employment.”

For the group to reach its full potential Chris realised they needed a regular income stream, fundraising – such as cycling the Leeds and Liverpool canal – could only go so far. That’s where the soap-making came in.

They started making it in Chris’s mum’s kitchen, evolved the recipe and then started selling it at craft fairs. The branding is clever; people soon bought into the concept – it was more than soap, it was hope.

Five years on, Getting Clean now has its own 4,000 sq ft factory in Armley and produces eight different varieties of soap which can be bought at various outlets around Leeds as well as via their website. Fundraising still plays a part, hence why you might have seen Chris sitting in a bathtub in City Square for three days in August. 

The enterprise also recently took a team to the Recovery Games in Doncaster, which celebrates recovery through sport, teamwork and shared purpose and is part of September’s National Recovery Month.

Getting Clean’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed and qualitative research from the University of Bradford has show that their innovative peer-led model brings ‘significant impact and opportunities for improving recovery, preventing relapse and breaking the stigma of addiction’.

The enterprise are working with Leeds City Council, Bevan Community Benefit Society and Forward Leeds on an initiative called the Hope Works Project, which aims to tackle homelessness and associated issues in the city.

This pilot scheme is the first of its kind in the UK and brings LEROs to the forefront of support, allowing people who truly know what it’s like to be trapped in the vicious cycle of addiction to empower other individuals.

Speak about his recovery and the strides Getting Clean has taken, Chris says: “I have to pinch myself. My life has become so enriched. I find myself in meetings and I think, ‘how have I got here wearing a bathrobe and a shower cap?’”

As far as Chris and Getting Clean is concerned, the sky’s the limit. They will continue to make soap, fundraise and promote their mission to ensure all addicts in the UK have access to peer support and employment opportunities. 

As far as second chances go, Chris’s story takes some beating.

To find out more, click here.