I grew up in a little town quite similar to Scunthorpe called Richards Bay. I spent my childhood there before moving away to study at University in order to become a teacher. While studying my degree I had an opportunity to visit my sister who was living in India at the time. This is where I was exposed to child exploitation through interacting with a group of boys that worked in the ‘sweat shop’ – after this exposure to this level of cruelty I had to find a way to respond and be part of a solution. At the time London what the epicentre of a lot of the work around ‘counter trafficking’ and ‘anti-slavery’. I made the decision to move over to the UK to involve myself and see how I could add value to the cause. After a few years I was introduced to a group of people where I was apart of setting up the Sophie Hayes Foundation which works with survivors of trafficking to achieve sustainable freedom.  After this I moved into community development with a International Relief organisation called Tearfund. I spent the next few years working with exciting organisation across the globe developing groups of volunteers in order for them to serve those on the margins. 

Then like many people the course of life changes to think about how I continue to pursue the things that make me come alive while also raising a family. So myself and my wife decided to move up North closer to where she is from and I found work with a great organisation called Oasis.