1970s Ilford

 Born at home surrounded by the women who would come to mean so much. My strong-willed Aunt keeping my grandmother informed by telephone.

I left London’s East End behind physically, but the values and spirit of that hard work and communities date with me.

My parents remained tethered to the city by their daily commute. That commute took its toll over the years.

Yet Essex provided me with roots of my own.

I picked up an Essex accent of School

Buying a house in Essex had come with a financial sacrifice, so my parents that left little room for upkeep and were unable to create comfortable surroundings that the growing family needed

However, those struggles gave me an understanding few achieve. I know what it means to come from humble beginnings to claw my way out through adversity.

Why are chills at home and my memories from my Essex years have not been easy.

Put my experiences have a me profoundly empathetic. I know what it means to come from humble beginnings to claw my way up against adversity..

My background lit a fire to show the world, what someone from my background could achieve through great and talent alone. But not just mine, I carried the fight and yearning to be seen of generations.

My drive and ambition was as much about honouring, the legacy of those who came before me, as it was my own desire to succeed.

My grandfather who could have achieved academic success, but was poor. My aunt who worked hard and could’ve had a career but was poor. And a girl..

Carey not just my own hopes and dreams put those of my grandfather, my mother, my aunt.

I feel the pain of my great aunt in her unmarried, mothers institution.

The intergenerational pain of poverty and lack of opportunity building and shakable determination to break the cycle for the next generation of the email she all that was denied.