Igor’s story

Find out more about our newest volunteer, Igor, who will be working with us behind the scenes on social media. He shares his story in his own words about his struggles through school, and how he came to be with us today:

“I vouched that I would join the battle of letting more people know the importance of healthy eating”

When I was young, I never had many dreams. If you ask any 6-year-old, you’ll probably hear all sort of answers, ranging from footballer to model, but I was different, I didn’t have any. I was the type that lived the moment, I wanted to live the present and not dwell too much on something I had none to little power over. Although, what I found from young is that I have always loved two things – PlayStation and people. In fact, I cannot remember a time in which I was not surrounded by either one of those.

As a kid, I was the typical class clown – I wouldn’t go to school to learn, I would go there to have fun. So, if I managed to make a couple of people laugh and smile, my day was complete. But, since I was too focused in being a class clown and also an avid gamer, homework always came last in the list of priorities. Therefore, when I rolled up to school on a Monday morning, with a blank homework sheet, I already knew that I would be sent to the ‘naughty corner’, but since I was sent there so often, it became known as my corner.

I was a teacher’s nightmare, but at the same time a teacher’s dream. Now based on the shenanigans that I would be up to, you’d think that my grades were the lowest in the class. But somehow it wasn’t, in fact it was one of the highest in the history of the school, I was dubbed a ‘genius’, but that was never something that I cared for, it was more of an ammunition for my parents to brag to others. 

However, this all changed when I moved to London. When I moved, my whole world changed, I was now in an unknown country and could not speak a word of the language; for the first time I felt like a small fish in a big pond. 

I could no longer be the class clown, this was no longer Lisbon and I could no longer communicate in Portuguese, so I shut myself. My dream went from nothing to wanting to move back to Portugal immediately.

Since I could no longer communicate, I sat behind my TV screen with a PlayStation controller in my hands, as secondary school years flew past me – I shut myself from the world. I stopped caring about everything, the only thing I cared about was returning home from school to play the latest iteration of FIFA, that became my life.

That was until I opened my AS-Level results and was met with three failing grades, I had not passed a single subject. So, for once I began making changes on how to leave that hole that had accommodated me for years, a hole that was also closing in on me, as the school informed me that this was my last opportunity to retake; so I had to act quickly. 

Fast forward to today, and I have just graduated from the University of Lincoln with an outstanding grade in BA Business and Marketing, I took the last chance given to me. Today, I also begin representing Lincoln Food Partnership, and I could not be prouder. 

I am proud to begin working with Lincoln Food Partnership for many reasons. However, one of the key reasons that aided my decision was that where I am from healthy food is not as predominant in many families’ diets. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see children and adults with serious health problems. For this reason, I vouched that I would join the battle of letting more people know the importance of healthy eating, and the risk of omitting greens from the diet.