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Former drug addict Jon Haynes is riding on the crest of a wave – after finding love while he was washed up and living rough on a beach.

Gardener Jon, 31, says he was more used to being spat at and kicked in the head by strangers as he bedded down each night near a seafront ice cream stand.

But when teacher Katie Nicol sat down and asked how he had reached such a low ebb, her kindness blossomed into romance.

Katie, 38, said: “I went to sit with him and said, ‘What’s your story?’ We just hit it off.”

Before long the pair were swapping love notes – which Katie used to leave in Jon’s shoes. In return, Jon wrote poems to Katie.

And within three months they realised they had both found their sole-mate.

(Image: Chris Frear/Triangle News)

Katie said: “We clicked straight away, he seemed so genuine. Every day we laugh.”

After their first meeting, kind-hearted Katie made daily visits to chat to dishevelled drifter Jon on the beach at Cleethorpes, Lincs.

She said: “I went and sat with him every day. He said he wanted to change his life so we decided we’d work towards that together.”

Jon, who had previously been hooked on heroin and hallucinogenic Spice, had been homeless for 18 months.

He said: “I got booted in the head a few times, and I was chased and spat at.

“But a bloke that owns a couple of ice cream shops down there used to look after me.”

Jon had almost started to give up on his future when Katie came along. But with her support, he is now off the streets, with a job and his own place to live.

(Image: Chris Frear/Triangle News)

And she has even helped set up a reunion with his long-lost dad Gary, who he had not seen since he was six.

Jon added: “She’s helped me a lot, in so many different ways.”

Katie’s first note was a simple one asking Jon what his favourite food was. But when they quickly transformed into love letters, Jon realised the relationship might develop into something more.

He said: “She was sending me those notes and I thought, there’s something different here. I really liked coming back to them.”

Jon’s poems to Katie – which she has kept – included verses about sleeping rough, and about the couple’s growing romance.

In one, he wrote of his feelings: “I met Kate a few weeks ago – where it’ll end up I do not know. I started to give up on myself. This lovely woman stopped, and gave me some help.”

Another swooned: “She’s amazing, prettier than any flower – beautiful on the inside, as well as the out.”

(Image: Chris Frear/Triangle News)

Jon had started sleeping rough after spending more than two and a half years in prison.

Katie explained how he had been convicted of GBH after assaulting a man who he caught in bed with his former girlfriend.

Not put off by his past, Katie – a support teacher at a behaviour unit – invited Jon home for a shower, a haircut and a roast chicken two months after their first chat. A month later they were officially dating.

And they have now been together for eight months.

Divorced mum-of-two Katie added: “I wasn’t worried when he first came to my house – I felt like I could trust him straight away.

“I asked him, ‘What’s your favourite food?’ and he said a roast dinner.

“He hates sausage rolls because he got given them all the time.

“He said to me, ‘I don’t want to ever eat chips again’. Our relationship has got a lot, lot stronger. We just laugh together all the time.”

(Image: Chris Frear/Triangle News)

Jon, who was begging with a cardboard sign that said, ‘Her lawyer was better than mine’, asked Katie out shortly after that first dinner. As the romance blossomed, Katie was even able to help him kick the drugs.

But while her mum Annabel got behind their relationship, Katie said not all her friends had felt the same.

She admitted: “We’ve had a mixture of reactions. The majority of my friends have been really supportive, however one has really had a major issue with it.

“But people meet on Tinder all the time, which I think can be more dangerous than sitting and talking to someone for four months.”

Katie, who is only recently divorced, still gets on well with her ex-husband – and says he has also been supportive of her new relationship.

As well as helping Jon off his drugs habit, she also helped to set up a reunion between him and his long-lost dad – who he met up with for the first time in 25 years.

With the help of Jon’s probation officer and a warden from his former prison, they tracked Gary down.

And soon they arranged for the father and son to meet in Katie's home town of Grimsby.

(Image: Chris Frear/Triangle News)

Jon explained: “My mum would move us around loads when we were kids. Katie helped me find my dad.

“I was a bit overwhelmed when I first met him.”

Jon and Gary are now making up for their lost time apart.

And he has even spent a few months living with his dad at his home in Burton, Derbys.

Jon and Katie now often go and stay with the family in the Midlands, and regularly meet up for barbecues.

Still struggling to believe how Katie turned the tide of his life, Jon says he will be “forever grateful” to her for everything she has done.

He said: “I used to think about this when I was sleeping on the beach, that I won’t be here forever… Thanks to Katie, that was true.”