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WHEN Derek Waller got a chance to train with his Celtic idols, he described it as like winning the lottery.

That’s quite a comparison for a man who is homeless and slept under a bridge at 15.

For Derek, the Hoops were always an escape from the trauma of a chaotic childhood – and yesterday, his dream came true when he got a chance to meet his heroes face to face.

Derek, 42, said: “This is beyond my wildest dreams and I’m not ashamed to say I cried when my support worker told me I’d get to stand on the same pitch as these guys.

“It really is like winning the lottery.”

The chance for Derek to meet the team came through a charity partnership between housing and homeless charity Shelter and the SPFL.

The trip to the club’s Lennoxtown training ground included a kickabout with first team striker Anthony Stokes and defender Efe Ambrose.

Mingling with millionaire sporting stars is a long way from the reality of Derek’s day-to-day life in temporary accommodation. He said: “To actually get a chance to play football beside players of their calibre has been incredible. It was a very unreal but fantastic feeling.”

The experience marks another step towards a brighter future for a man who endured a dark and troubled past.

Derek had a chaotic upbringing in Dumfries with parents who were “dysfunctional”.

At 15, he felt forced to leave home and sleep under a bridge in his home town rather than remain in a household that was damaging him by the day.

He said: “It was traumatic for me living at home. My parents were dysfunctional. Sleeping under a bridge was actually still a better option for me than going home.”

When he took to the streets, it was winter and the snow was on the ground and without any form of benefits, he had to steal and beg just to feed himself.

“It was hard. I was so traumatised that I couldn’t think straight. All I could do was just try and stay alive. It was very lonely and frightening. People used to just walk past me.”

Eventually his maternal grandmother intervened and took him to live with her.

A kind and loving woman, she gave him stability for the first time.

(Image: Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record)

Derek said: “That was the best time in my whole life. I was working and getting on with things and she was really good to me.”

But after she died when he was only 19, he plummeted into despair.

He said: “She represented the only security I had ever experienced. I took her death really hard.”

Derek took over her flat but turned to drugs and alcohol to numb his grief.

He moved from tenancy to tenancy and accrued debt along the way.

Four years ago, he kicked his heroin habit but financially was still on his knees.

Last year, when he turned to charity Shelter, he had been living in a homeless hostel in Dumfries for a year.

He said: “That was terrible. I was surrounded by people on drugs and alcohol so the temptation was always in front of me. People were coming and going at all times of the night and there was no privacy. It was a miserable way to live.”

Shelter helped find him temporary accommodation in a flat and he has been there since.

When Shelter asked support worker Ian Kevan if he knew any Celtic super-fans he immediately thought of Derek, who he was working with at the time.

Ian said: “A lot of the work I was doing with Derek was tackling his emotions, making him see that his problems now were down to a traumatic childhood that wasn’t his fault. One area of common ground we found was football. We used to talk about his love for Celtic. He was mad about them.”

On that occasion, Derek was given tickets for the Scottish League Cup final – but nothing prepared him for the chance to actually meet his team.

Yesterday, he was given the team’s new jersey and tickets for tonight’s Champions League qualifier against Icelandic champions Stjarnan.

He got to mingle with players Kris Commons, Mikael Lustig and Darnell Fisher as they took some time out in the training ground’s recreational room – and even manager Ronny Deila took the opportunity to chat to Derek and pose for a picture.

Derek said: “When you are homeless, you feel like no one cares about you – like you’re alone. You lose all hope of good things ever happening to you. My life has been turned around but I still only take it day by day.

“This has definitely been one of the most amazing days of my life.

“I’m really proud of the club. They’ve not only given me a day I will never forget but they’ve helped a charity that helped me turn a corner. I’ve gone from being homeless and feeling hopeless to looking forward to the future. I can’t thank Shelter, the SPFL and Celtic enough.”

Shelter director Graeme Brown said: “We are thrilled for Derek. By supporting Shelter Scotland, the SPFL and thousands of fans who have donated over the course of the season have helped us support thousands of people just like Derek.”

Each year, Shelter help more than half a million people in Scotland to ensure they don’t have to face bad housing and homelessness on their own – enough to fill Celtic Park eight times over.