Now aged 37, McAvoy is a sponsored triathlete who competes in Ironman events. A man who broke three world records and seven British records in indoor rowing, from the confines of the prison gym.

By the time of his release in 2012, McAvoy had radically turned his life around, and he has since set about encouraging others to follow the same redemptive course he found - in the power of sport. The 15 years that followed have led McAvoy along a very different path to the one he had envisaged growing up among hardened members of the criminal underworld. He revealed that this was the moment he changed his life's path. ''I needed to get out.'' - John McAvoy to Olympic Channel Podcast.

Isobrilliance

He's applied that to his current situation by raising money for the Trussell Trust which looks after foodbanks across the United Kingdom.

I had about 15 guns pointing at me in this little cul-de-sac and I was face down on the floor. I was absolutely deflated," he says. I said: 'I'm going to become an athlete'. He was a crown court judge in his 70s. With his glasses on the bridge of his nose he looked up at me with a smile and said: 'In all my years of sitting in hearings for life-sentence prisoners, you are the only one who has sat in front of me and said that.' Unbeknown to young McAvoy, Tobin was a prolific armed robber and had just been released after 16 years in prison. He broke three world records while behind bars and, after being paroled in 2012, took to triathlon and became a professional Ironman, having realised he was too old to make it as an Olympic rower. He says, "Routine is very important. For my routine when I was in prison, getting up, exercising, reading, having structure to my day was really important. Keeping that routine, keeping yourself in the moment and staying active for your mental wellbeing as much as you possibly can is key. If you're able to get out for a 10-minute walk to get some sunlight on your skin, just do that. You don't need to go and run, just walk outside. Use that opportunity. "I know it's hard sometimes when you don't know when it's going to end, but it isn't going to last forever." - John McAvoy to Olympic Channel.

While serving his second prison sentence, McAvoy found out that his best friend had been killed in a car crash after an armed robbery. But as well as training and competing as a triathlete, he runs outreach programmes in a bid to help troubled youth. ''You need to give every young person in the world an opportunity to better their lives. And I genuinely believe sport can do that.'' - John McAvoy to Olympic Channel Podcast. The words may seem somewhat clichéd, but it’s these kinds of mantras that McAvoy lives by, and that weren’t given to him, half a lifetime ago. After pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and one count of possession of firearms with intent to commit robbery, McAvoy was sentenced to life imprisonment. I made the decision from that night that I would never commit a crime ever again, that was me done. I wanted to get out of this place, and I wanted to do something else with my life. I didn’t know what it was or what I was going to do but I knew I didn’t want to do this anymore."