// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
I should be dead or in prison - now I'm reunited with the teacher who changed my life
"Statistically I should be dead, in prison or homeless."
Sam Gardner lived in 15 foster homes between the ages of three and 17, and said the instability was a "big challenge".
He never felt at home anywhere and was sometimes hungry and neglected. When he left the care system at 18, his future was uncertain.
But he said a few "anchors" helped him to lay the foundations for adulthood. Now, the BBC has helped to reunite the 33-year-old with one of them - his former teacher who "saw past" Sam being a child in foster care.
"She made me feel like I belonged," said Sam, who went on to become a teacher himself.
Twenty-five years after she taught him in primary school, Ms Meek and Sam met again
Sam said he didn't really feel at home until he met his last set of foster carers, when he was aged 17.
Despite his start in life, Sam defied the odds to become a primary school teacher, inspired by one special woman who he said believed in him at his school in south Wales.
"She wasn't a perfect teacher but she saw past my label as a looked-after child. She also demanded that I didn't look at that label," recalled Sam.
He said before joining Christine Meek's class aged eight, school was a "challenging place" and that he was academically two years behind his peers.