Peter O’Shea was born in Brookwood mental hospital in Aldershot, to a single mother who had been a patient there since her teens. She took her own life when Peter was seven years old. After years in foster care, he fell into addiction and football violence, numbing the pain he didn’t know how to express. Determined to turn his life around, Peter clawed his way up from cleaning toilets in Safeway to becoming a successful executive at Barclays. Later, he gave up his banking career to found Turnstyle UK, a youth organisation that transforms the lives of children who, like him, felt abandoned, angry, and in need of purpose and belonging.
Today, Peter is a professor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, an award-winning charity leader, and a father of five – as well as a father figure to several young men in his youth organisation. He still has regular therapy and he is still on a path to forgive the man who caused his mother’s death. He hopes that this book will inspire young working class boys, especially care-leavers, to feel less alone.