It all started with an episode of Deal or No Deal; and resulted in over 100 Lush shop managers weeping and pledging their support to an amazing charity!
At this point I have to confess I am a bit of a fan of Deal or No Deal. Often I get back from work and stick on More4 to watch the repeat, put my feet up and have a nice cup of tea. Usually people go on the show to win thousands of pounds to go on a nice holiday or buy a flashy sports car. I have to say, I’m not always very kind when those contestants go home with 10p. But now and again, you get someone who really wants to make a difference with the money they win. On 8 May was Lamin Daffeh’s turn.
Lamin grew up in The Gambia and came to England in 1998. He currently works for a charity helping people with drug and alcohol addictions, which you would think would be enough of a contribution to the world for most people, but not for Lamin. He also runs the Fresh Start Foundation, with his wife Rebecca. Fresh Start works in the very community that Lamin grew up, focusing on improving education and sanitation and particularly taking care of the many orphans, who are vulnerable to abuse. Sadly, there are many cases of sexual abuse of children, often fuelled by the tourist trade. 
Lamin and Rebecca have so far funded all the work of the Fresh Start Foundation themselves, despite not having much money themselves. They also have a baby daughter, Safia, and when she arrived, they were unsure whether they could afford to continue with their work. Deal or No Deal was their last chance.
As soon as I heard the story I was hooked, and unlike with the contestants who long to buy their first Porche, I desperately wanted Lamin to win the £250,000. But then the £250,000 went, as did the £100,000 and the £75,000. It was not looking good. The final two boxes were £500 and £10, and even though the banker had agreed to double the money, everyone was so disappointed for Lamin. The final box was opened; £10. Silence. Noel comforted Lamin by saying that he felt this was just the beginning, that lots of people would track him down on the web and that he would find the support he needs for Fresh Start.
Like many others watching, I thought about getting in touch. But like Noel said, lots of people will, there’s no need for me to aswell. But in the end I decided to track him down and send an email and I’m so happy that I did.
This week we had a managers’ meeting with over 100 of our shop managers and other staff. We invited Lamin to come along to talk to everyone. Endemol, who make Deal or No Deal, were really helpful and sent along the DVD of the episode in just a couple of days, so I was able to show everyone what had happened on the show (thank you Endemol!). When I invited Lamin up on the stage everyone was so excited to see him!
Now, I knew from chatting with Lamin on the phone what an amazing person he is, but I wasn’t quite prepared for how inspirational he would be. Half the room were in tears during his presentation and at the end, everyone was speechless. The only comment being something on the lines of “we often hear about people being inspirational, but when that really happens you get butterflies in your stomach and goosebumps, and you feel like you must do something. And that is exactly how I am feeling right now”.
We gave Fresh Start a grant from our Charity Pot to renovate the Kwinella school, where Lamin went, and to build new toilets. Many of our staff have also pledged to make monthly donations through Give As You Earn to help the future work of Fresh Start and there’s also a small team of people who are already planning a trip out to Gambia to volunteer!
There were other people who contacted Lamin after the show, but the total raised was just £7,000, which is not a huge amount considering how many people watch the show (over 4 milion). I think Noel made a mistake when he said that everyone would contact Lamin, I think this just resulted in many people thinking, as I did, that their help wasn’t needed. Never leave it to someone else, you could be missing the chance to help people like Lamin and Rebecca make a huge difference to people who really need it.
If you’d like to help the Fresh Start Foundation, please visit the website: www.fsfgambia.org
Sophie xx
Oh… he was so genuine and appeared to show through joy from living despite working with the not so great aspects of life. It is really moving to see that there are people still capable of floating above the hardness and ironies of daily living.
Nice one, sophie