I am from a council estate and went to a special measures secondary school. I went on to study at University of Leeds, a Russell Group University. I have a degree and a masters in theatre. While at University I also won a business enterprise scholarship, a business pitching competition, a business plan competition and a Sir Peter Thomas social enterprise award. I use my story to inspire other people, predominantly but not exclusively young people that anything is possible through the medium of making theatre and exploring working class narrative on stage. We offer high value arts and cultural engagement to disadvantaged communities having a positive knock on effect on mental health and well being, job prospects, educational attainment and quality of lifestyle.

The pandemic has been extremely challenging for us as we lost all of our face to face work overnight. There have been many moments of not knowing whether we would still be open each month. However, we now approach the end of the financial year and have in fact done slightly better financially each month than last year. This shows that even in these incredibly tough times we have grown, we have used the time to develop the organisation and receive mentorship from Alex Croft, Nicola Greenan and Alan Lane. We have worked hard to fight to keep money coming in and the organisation afloat and this is the kind of motivation and work ethic that is at the core of everything we do at Bloomin’ Buds.

Find out more at… bloominbuds.co.uk