You are sectioned for the foreseeable future.

Seven words. Seven measly words, consisting of just 38 letters. Seven words that changed everything.

Ten years ago, a psychiatrist in a hospital in Connecticut delivered those fateful words to me: “You are sectioned for the foreseeable future.” It was unquestionably the most scary and life-altering sentence I had ever heard. It was a sliding door moment—or rather, a bolted, reinforced steel door moment.

The Crumbling of the Pyramid

What happened? A toxic cocktail of redundancies, bad actors, and undiagnosed bipolar disorder blended to ensure that the psychiatrist made the right call. Within a few short months, my Maslow’s Pyramid—honed over four decades with hard work and good fortune—crumbled into a million pieces. My marriage, my corporate career, and my worldly goods went up in a puff of smoke.

When I was finally able to work again, I was under strict doctor’s orders to take a job that did not involve using my brain. Having been born white, male, and highly privileged, I had never experienced prejudice or barriers to employment. Suddenly, no employer would touch me.

My breakthrough came when I secured a role as an Assistant Junior Cleaner in a frozen meat processing plant, working 15-hour days at -55 degrees. It was grueling, but it was a lifeline.

The Birth of Bridge of Hope

After eventually returning to the corporate world and facing yet another redundancy, I had a moment of clarity. I realized I needed to do something meaningful with my life. I knew the utter devastation that unemployment can cause, and I knew the transformative power of a job.

The idea was simple: connect candidates from under-represented groups into meaningful work. And so, Bridge of Hope was born.

Starting as a small charity piloting in the horse racing sector, we evolved into a social enterprise. Today, Bridge of Hope 3.0 connects over 85,000 active candidates to 50+ blue-chip inclusive employers.

Hiring with Conviction

With two-thirds of the Bridge of Hope team having “lived experience,” we understand the barriers our candidates face. We have recently launched our pioneering program, Hire with Conviction, focusing on the justice-impacted talent pool—an enormous and largely overlooked group of over 12 million people in the UK.

Justice-friendly hiring isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s commercially savvy. Each justice-impacted new employee generates over £56,000 in social value for the employer [5].

My journey from a psychiatric ward to founding Bridge of Hope taught me that adversity breeds resilience. A job is the biggest game-changer in life, and we are dedicated to providing that opportunity to those who need it most.