Martin was a passionate educator. In particular, he was passionate about those children and young people who found school challenging, believing that they should have the opportunity to succeed. He was a governor of an outstanding alternative education school in Liverpool, he was a TLG Early Intervention coach, and he spoke with conviction regarding both.

I’m glad that I met and got to know Martin through Ann, his wife, who I worked with. I was encouraged and challenged by our friendship. I was lifted by the example of his faith impacting on this often neglected area of education.

Martin’s untimely death from Covid early on in the pandemic was a shock and has acted as a constant reminder to live each day as if it may be my last.

Since leaving teaching in December 2020, I have volunteered at TLG Manchester, an alternative education school. TLG is a charity and relies on support to develop its centres. I started this challenge to raise money for a new projector and interactive whiteboard, but before I could reach the first milestone, the school where Ann and I worked gave the centre a recently replaced board and projector and spare. TLG and I are hugely grateful for this support. But the challenge continued, 1,000,000 steps between the Easter and Summer holidays, this equated to approximately 10,000 steps a day.

A week after completing the 1,000,000 steps challenge I was admitted to the Cardiac Care Unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital and diagnosed with intermittent total heart block was fitted with a pacemaker nine days later. The 1,000,000 steps done, I have returned to volunteering at the Education Centre and am also now part of a team of Early Intervention coaches going into 2 North Manchester primary schools.

At Ann's request, I have reopened this fundraising page so she can share the opportunity to donate to the work of the Manchester TLG Education Centre in Martin's memory

Will you support TLG, in Martin’s memory? The funds will be used to develop the nurture room at the centre, a space that is so important in enabling the students to make progress as they look to return to mainstream schools.