I met John Street and others from Free@Last in 2016 and being involved in criminal law for my work i had come across Nechells quite frequently. Over the years i've represented many young people and have always been struck by the fact that underlying problems and lack of activities to distract them from the "gangs". Nechells, on the edge of Birmingham City Centre had been a particular hot bed for criminal activity. Free @ Last has been active for some time and I am sure that John will tell us more on the facebook page. 

Free @ Last aims to support the families and the young people and equip them with abilities that will enable them to thrive without turning to criminality. 

I recently took part in an Entrepreneur Challenge where a good number of gave up our Mondays to mentor 8 teams of local pupils. I was lucky enough to be paired with another Mentor and we had a teacher with us. It was hard work. There were of course ups and downs with the kids. They were however unfailingly keen and came up with great idea's. Of course they had little spats and got bored and fidgety, but they are Year 6 and it was very warm too. They did put all into the challenge and were fantastically polite and to use their product name, they certainly didn't straumatize me ! 

Talking to John and the volunteers through the weeks we know that the centre which has just opened is still struggling for cash to keep things going and also to provide equipment to enable them to offer more groups and classes. 

We were happy that any money raised simply goes to the charity, but it has been suggested that we direct the money to a specific area. So we are putting any monies raised to the fitness classes run at Free@Last. I won't speak for Stephen here on this part, but being someone that is clinically obese and knows about the obesity crisis in the youth of the UK I am happy to support that area in the hope that our weight loss can help others to keep it off and not have to go through challenge I am now doing !  

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