I am the world’s worst yogurt squeezer. I’ll tell you the story why.

Whilst I was setting up Beautiful Minds, a journey that gave my life meaning and has helped me to help millions of children nationwide, I was working in a yogurt factory to pay the bills.

Let me set the scene for you.

I was juggling shifts at the stinky factory and they were back-breaking. Throwing on a hair net at 3 am and spending hours squeezing yogurt into tubes by myself in an icy room, before quickly changing and scooting tired and sore to work on my new business.

They were brutal days, but the down payment on the dream.

I’d had a vision of changing children’s lives and in particular, focusing on mental health, which was criminally neglected at the time. If I hung in long enough, I could save enough money to put on my first Beautiful Minds workshops for kids.

Our first workshop had four children in it. I was thrilled! Word spread about the work I was doing. The phone didn’t stop. Straight away I was having an impact on a local community level and those were the happiest days I’ve known.

For the first two years after I started Beautiful Minds, I worked in that factory 5 days a week, from 3 am. As the business grew, I hung up my hair net and dedicated my life to working with young people and their families.

The gift, truly, is in the giving.