Tributes have been paid to a man who struggled with alcohol addiction before taking his own life when he was told he could no longer live with his pets.

John Chadwick’s body was discovered just moments after sending a close friend a text saying he no longer wished to be alive.

The 52-year-old spent a number of years living on the streets in Manchester and moved to Maidstone where he was cared for by the Kenward Trust.

His friend Dee Bonett, 49, said: “We were friends for eight years and he was one of the most grounded people I ever met. I was so inspired by his story. Last year, in April, things came to a head from his previous life. There was a police hunt before he was found safely in London.

“On the day he died I woke up and he had sent me a text saying he had had enough and the first thing I did was call 999. He committed suicide on March 16, which was the anniversary of his mother’s death.”

In 2007 Mr Chadwick was taken in by the Kenward Trust, in Yalding, which helps those addicted to drink or drugs.

"He had been crushed without his animals... He couldn’t live without them" - Dee Bonett

Mrs Bonett, of Rowlands Close, met Mr Chadwick in 2008.

She said: “I had never heard of Kenward Trust but their work inspired me to work for them a year and a half later.

"After John relapsed I got him a kitten called Gizmo and that gave him something to get up in the morning for.

"A couple of years later I got the dogs called Theo and Tinkerbell. They became his family.”

Mr Chadwick was forced to leave his home of four years in Boxley Road following his landlord’s decision to take back the property.

He stayed at a bed and breakfast in Chamberlain Avenue until Maidstone Borough Council offered him a flat at Square Hill in April.

Mrs Bonett, who still works helping vulnerable people, said: “He couldn’t have his animals at the property and he committed suicide at the bed and breakfast.

“He had been crushed without his animals. He was unable to take them with him to Square Hill and he couldn’t live without them.”

Mrs Bonnet bid farewell to her friend during a ceremony at St Francis Church in Week Street last Saturday.

If you would like confidential support on an emotional issue, call Samaritans on 08457 909090 at any time.