THE SECRETS OF THEIR SUCCESS

Fast Facts:

Pursuit: Director and Creator at Full Reach Children’s Projects, fund-raiser extraordinaire!

Definition of success: “Doing what you love”. More below.

Today I’m playing the role of journalist – and I have unearthed quite a scoop. But more of that in a minute. Let me start with a quote from one of my first guests, the writer, actor and award-winning producer Mary Alexandra Stiefvater, who told me that success was “Leaving the world a better place than when you entered it.” If that’s true, then today’s guest has found the very zenith of the concept – is at the very least scaling the precipice of success in its purest form. A lot of achievers develop themselves as a personality and then employ the accompanying publicity for charitable ends; and there’s nothing wrong with that – a salubrious lifestyle if ever there was one. For today’s guest though, charity came first. She’s not an Olympian, a musician, an actor or an author. She is a live-in care worker. But she’s also, through her charitable endeavours, gained a Twitter entourage of nearly 18,000. Do you see? First came the charity, then came the status. And what an honourable status. Anyway, back to the scoop I promised. Today’s guest is attempting to raise £200,000 to build a children’s home, and to do so has embarked upon a series of challenges: living on £1 a day for a month, sleeping rough, living deaf, blind and silent for four days. But her next challenge is the biggest yet. I mean it’s ambitious to say the least – nigh on impossible some would say. But then, given the lady in question, I’d have to back her to succeed. In any case, if you want to be the first to discover the next in the ever-more jaw-dropping #rosieschallenges, you’ll have to read through to the end (no skipping now). So without further ado, here to tell us how it all began, Director and Creator of Full Reach Children’s Projects: Rosie Mai Iredale.

“This is a difficult question to answer,” Rosie says when I ask her what inspired her to begin Full Reach. “Practically, I saw a gap in the market as such, an opportunity, that made sense to fill two needs: to have a job I love, and to provide a better level of care to the young people who need it most.”

As you might imagine, there’s a lot more to Rosie’s motivators than the practical. 

“Inspiration is a very emotional feeling,” she continues, “and when I talk how I came to doing this, emotionally, it comes down to my own life experiences, of my own life growing up and those growing up around me. I have seen so many people that have come from the most difficult lives and turned them into something amazing. They have used the fact that they grew up in care to push them to making sure they achieved security on their own, or turned the feelings they experienced from being abused into amazing music that gives others strength, used the fact that their father beat their mother into a reason to work in protecting women from domestic abuse – to name but a few examples. I am inspired by what people can achieve, given the chance, and that’s why I am raising the money to set up a non-profit children’s home that will nurture, support, challenge and educate the young people, giving them the tools and opportunities to achieve things that will inspire others, so the cycle continues.”

Take a look at Rosie’s Twitter feed or Facebook page and you’ll get an idea of just the kind of work she has put in towards that fundraising. There are images on there that get you thinking – could you live for four days without seeing, hearing or speaking? But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Rosie, don’t forget, has to support herself, pay her bills, just like anyone else. I wonder how that pans out, how much time she devotes to charity and how she fits everything else in.

“How much do I work on my fundraising every day? Well, some days zero hours, some days twenty-four hours. When I am doing a challenge, I devote every minute to it, even as I sleep I will stick to my challenge, for example when I did my deaf challenge, I wore my headphones to bed. I don’t earn anything from doing my challenges and fundraising, so I work as a live-in carer, providing twenty-four-seven care to adults with disabilities, for up to six weeks at a time. This job means that I can devote weeks at a time to my challenges as I have saved up my wages to pay my bills while I am not working. Every break I get at work, I cram as much work as I can into growing the charity, writing proposals, social media, organising events, contacting the press, doing all the admin, and, well, the work is endless, but I love it! This is my life plan and once I have grown it to scale then I will devote all my time to it; for now I devote every minute I have that isn’t taken up with paying the bills.”

Now that is a life-goal… So of all those challenges, of everything Rosie has achieved to date, which is her biggest?

“The biggest achievement is having the idea in the first place and committing to seeing it through,” she says, “which I committed to as soon as I received my first donation. As soon as I thought it all through, it all made sense and I felt like I had worked out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, which is the most satisfying feeling in the world.” But, she adds, “Until I reach my goal, nothing satisfies me, I am always hungry for more!”

As you might imagine, those reserves of hunger and determination are needed when it comes to pushing herself through each challenge.

“I have times I am so exhausted, and any of my friends and family will tell you that I work far too hard, but every time I feel like this, I remind myself of what I am doing, why I am doing it, and my secret thing is to look over all the comments and donations on the fundraising pages, and it fills me with so much happiness that it renews all my energy and makes me feel it is all worth it.”

Given such a defined outlook on her future, it’s perhaps not surprising that Rosie’s definition of success is a lucid one.

“Success is doing what you love. For me it is that simple. If you can’t find a job doing what you love, then create it! When I was looking for my perfect job,” she continues, “I couldn’t find it. I found companies that put their profits before the people they were caring for; I found people cutting corners, young people lost in a system that was failing them, and I said: I want to work with young people who have had the most difficult lives imaginable and help them turn it around – what is the best way for me to do that? I concluded: open a children’s home that is run not for profit, with the best staff and that gives these young people the best possible chance in life. Achieving this, devoting my life to what I love, to me is success.”

And Rosie’s advice to anyone seeking their own success?

“Do it! Want it! Live it! Love it! Simple. And work very, very hard, but make sure you take the time out to smile.”

And that’s it…

No, of course not really – what, you think I’d forgotten about the exclusive inside scoop? Before I let Rosie go, I ask her for just a hint of her next challenge.

“Well,” she starts, “I haven’t announced it yet, but as this website is all about the secrets of success, so I will let you into a little secret. My next challenge will be pushing a bed the length of the UK, sleeping in it every night, and doing it all in pyjamas. I want to give young people a safe, stable and secure place to sleep at night. This will be my biggest challenge yet,” she reveals, “but there is even more to come, that is still a secret for now!”

Told you it was a biggie.

Thanks to Rosie for her inspirational words and for being one of those rare people who give up their own time to make a real difference – I for one will be following her progress through the next challenge and wish her the very best of luck. I’m also looking forward to hearing about the one after that (feel free to drop by with another exclusive won’t you Rosie!)

You can keep up with Rosie’s challenges by following her on Twitter @FullReach and Facebook at facebook.com/full.reach.projects Finally you can get involved and sponsor Rosie at her website: www.fullreach.co.uk