Opinion: We need a constant person in our lives

Those were the final words on a single sheet of paper that I received just before Christmas. The top of the page carried a prison number and the address of one of Her Majesty's custodial establishments. The letter was from one of the Milltown Boys, the subject of my 1980s study of disadvantaged young people on a Cardiff council estate. And the concluding words were not quite what one might expect from a man in his mid-40s who was accustomed to being the "hard man" and who has been in and out of prison all his life.

The letter touched me deeply and over the festive season I kept wondering why. And then it occurred to me that, apart from a handful of the Boys - who hardly wear their emotions and affections on their sleeve - I am probably the only person who has "been there" for Matt throughout his life.