Back in the early days of setting up the RowLeeds programme, I sat down with Rebecca Carrow to discuss our model and my experiences in a sport that has a 'certain reputation'.
My career has been about upending that reputation through providing life-changing opportunities for young people with lives characterised by disadvantage. In many ways my career has been a metaphor for my broader politics. It was the utterly divergent experiences of working in a leafy private school, followed some of the most deprived and violent estates in the UK, that led me to join the Labour Party in the first place.
Here I talk about rowing. More recently, my work has expanded out to all aspects of education and community-based youth development.