People Inspired By Purpose - Purposely Podcast

Tara Arnold lost her first born son Buddy in July 2017, tragically he was stillborn. Tara joins Purposely Podcast to share her story and how she recovered from her ‘catastrophic trauma’. Her deep grief propelled her to start a social enterprise, helping others who have also lost a baby. Tara has gone on to have a second child, a little girl who is now one year old. Nova Foundation, the charity set...

Jamie Feilden joins Purposely Podcast to share his founder story about Jamie’s Farm. Jamie’s Farm was set up to provide a life changing rural experience for disadvantaged inner-city children and young people. The aim of the intense farming experience is to provide a catalyst for change, enabling disadvantaged young people to thrive academically, socially and emotionally long after their visit. The...

Camila Batmanghelidjh joins Purposely Podcast to share her founder story about controversial charity. Kids Company was set up to provide support to deprived inner city children across the UK. From its original "drop-in" centre in south London it expanded over the following two decades to be a prominent children's charity operating 11 centres in Greater London, Bristol and Liverpool. Camila and Kid...

Awarded an OBE and then recognised as Dame for her services to children and young people Benita (Benny) Refson is one of the most influential people in the nonprofit / charity sector. Benny joins Purposely Podcast to talk about her formative years, including the influence of her father, a false start in psych services and then an interlude in the fashion industry with Vogue as a junior runner. Ben...

Hope and Homes for Children was founded by Mark Cook OBE, a retired Colonel, and his wife Caroline. The first project was an orphanage in Croatia, in a town called Lipik. Cook was posted there as part of the United Nations Protection Force. Initially, he and other soldiers repaired war-damaged orphanages before realising that what children really required was a family. Hope and Homes for children...

Annah Stretton joins Purposely Podcast to talk about her successful charitable work. How she has used her entrepreneurial skills to help empower and change lives, particularly women in prison through RAW (rescue another woman). We also delve deep into her other successful career in the fashion industry, initially in a non branded business which makes her significant amounts of money. You will hear...

Olly Belcher joined Purposely Podcast to talk about her founder story and her absolute dedication to helping people living in poverty in India. She talks about how fatherly influence (as well as personal invite from Mother Teresa) led her to dedicate her career to helping people living in poverty in West Bengal. Her father’s career in India led to many bed-time stories focused the wonders and myst...

Kelda Wood experienced a life changing accident in 2002 which almost led to her leg being amputated. Despite these injuries she has turned turmoil into triumph. Kelda’s achievements include para-canoeist representing Great Britain on the world stage, she has climbed two mountains including the highest peak in South America, rowed across the Atlantic solo and unassisted (plus more). Despite all of...

Sarah Brook, the founder and owner of The Sparkle Foundation, was on a trip through Malawi when she suddenly fell ill. Being saved and cured in Malawi, Sarah made it her mission to give back to the country by bringing medical care, nutrition and education to children in need. Since its inception in 2015 The Sparkle Foundation has educated 800 children, conducted 4’700 medical interventions and ser...

Join Purposely Podcast to hear my latest guest Howard Lake. In this podcast Howard talks about being an unlikely dotcom entrepreneur and while his friends, family and colleagues supported his start-up mission they also admitted to ‘not really understanding what he was doing’… locked away in his home office learning HTML and developing resources for sharing on the web. While he is very happy with h...

Hear how an incident on the way home from school on May 4 1972 changed Richards life forever. Richard Moore, then aged 10, was shot by a British Soldier. Luckily he survived, however, the rubber bullet did untold damage to his eyes and meant that he lost his sight completely. This was during the troubles in Northern Ireland where there was a huge divide between nationalists (catholic’s) and unioni...

There are approximately 260 million children worldwide who do not have access to education. Our latest inspirational founder believes that she has found a solution to this issue and the challenge she faces now is scaling that solution so it reaches enough children. Katrin McMillan founded Not-For-Profit HelloWorld in September 2018 at the same creating and designing solar powered ‘education’ hubs...

Sanjeev Gandhi founder of education charity Reach to Teach. He launched Reach to Teach in 2003 with the aim of providing education to children living in poverty in Gujarat (Western India). British born Sanjeev had been a regular visitor to the region from birth. Gujarat is his parents homeland and they installed not only a love for the area and its people but also a respect and passion for educati...

Join Head of Purpose Mark Longbottom interviewing the inspirational Sir Tim Smit. Tim dreamt about a gigantic ‘tree museum’ that would go on to become one of the largest and most popular tourist attractions in the world. He turned that dream into a reality around the time of the new millennium. The project centred on the build of these giant biomes that take people on a journey of discovery throug...

Joseph Russo states his dyslexia is his super power. Tune in and hear how growing up with a disability propelled him to a life of purpose as founder and CEO of UK Charity The Enthusiasm Trust. A poignant interview that provides fantastic insights on what effective and impactful youth work does and should look like. Joseph also lays bare some of his toughest moments as a leader in the charitable se...

In 2012 Ian Thwaites swapped a career in the City with an Investment Bank for a life of purpose. Ian and his co founder and now Chairman Stuart Rhodes set up the UK charity Level Water. Level Water provides one-to-one swimming lessons for children with physical disabilities or sensory impairments. They used the buzz caused around the 2012 Olympics, particularly the Para Olympics to help launch and...

Lucy Buck swapped a successful career producing reality television for a life of purpose in Uganda helping orphan children. Love Island for a love of children. Lucy discovered that many of the orphanages operating in Uganda were in fact damaging to children and she was inspired to connect orphan children with loving alternatives and if possible helping them back to their families. Lucy’s ability t...

Hannah Underwood is a self-confessed charity and data geek with an unquenchable desire to improve as many young lives as possible. In her early career Hannah learned how to measure performance and use data to improve organisations. At the age of 25, Hannah became CEO of The Key, a charity inspiring belief in young people. Working with venture philanthropists, Impetus PEF, they used data & metrics...

Nyasha Gwatidzo was born in Zimbabwe and gained a degree in Chemistry from London University. She then went on to retrain at Reading University and gained an MA, to work with adults and children with emotional issues. She is a qualified psychotherapist, social worker, coach and mentor. http://walkwithmenetwork.com/ She is a serial social entrepreneur, working with disadvantaged people in the UK an...

Tune in to hear Dr Sarah Fane's incredible story... how this British woman continuously risked her life to play a key role in transforming the lives of thousands of Afghan people. Sarah is  currently Director in charge of the Marylebone Cricket Club Foundation, the charitable arm of the MCC, and their aim is to utilise the power of sport and specifically cricket to enhance lives.  Awarded an OBE b...

Mark Johnson is a rehabilitated offender and former drug user, bestselling author of Wasted and the founder of the charity User Voice. User Voice was built on using the strengths of people and ignoring what others see as deficiencies. User Voice focuses on the strengths of lived experience not on the perceived weaknesses of lack of education, qualifications and professional track record. The lived...