Most of us have felt the anxiety of being lost in a maze, with no idea where to go in our lives. But sometimes this fog of uncertainty can be replaced by a creeping sensation that every path is a dead-end; that the maze is, in fact, a prison—or even a house of horrors.

For too many people, life has gone from bewildering to discouraging to hopeless.

I was touched when I heard Chris Newell’s story. He left school at age 14, and he told the BBC he was applying for 10 jobs a week but didn’t even get responses. He turned to alcohol and drugs; and at the age of 20, he tried to take his own life.