“When I went to get my award, there was a big banner with me and my boss on it, it was crazy, only two or three years before I was nearly getting kicked out of school,” he said. Mark went to Belfast Metropolitan College and got his qualifications, after which he won a student barber of the year prize. He paid tribute to Belfast Boys Model for sticking by him and said he was almost persuaded to go back to do A-levels but after talking with his head of year and his foster parents, he decided to follow his dream of cutting hair. Stuff I would never have dreamed of, but I’ve been able to get there.” “I’m nowhere near where I want to be, but I’ve turned it around and won awards, I work in an award-winning salon in Melbourne. “I want people to know that even if you don’t get the grades you want, grades aren’t everything, it’s about your drive, your motivation and how much you want it. Mr Hawthorne giving a demonstration of his barbering skills (Mark Hawthorne/PA) (PA Media) I know from experience it only takes one person believing in you to change your life, like my foster family believed in me.”Īt the same time as his studies, he gave his time as a youth support worker at St Peters Immaculata Youth Centre on the nationalist Falls Road, across the peace wall from his home on the lower Shankill.įive years on, he said at that stage he felt a little lost in terms of what to do next, and as students this week prepare to receive their GCSE results, he said he wants to emphasise to them how much is possible whatever their background. “The main thing I want to do now is help other people. Getting taken into care was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it helped me be able to help my mum be able to get clean, and now we have a brilliant relationship, and I respect her so much,” he told the PA news agency. “I was going nuts in school, getting suspended. When I was in school, I felt like a statistic and was told I'd be lucky to get five qualifications, but I've had jobs in London, have been offered jobs in Canada and now I'm in Melbourne until next year He said his mother had struggled with drug dependency and mental health problems, and they were forced to leave their home in Carrickfergus. However Mark secured eight good GCSE passes, including two Bs and six Cs. There was also the backdrop of a report which had found that loyalist working class boys were falling behind in terms of education.
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At that time, official statistics pointed to just 15% of looked-after children getting five good GCSEs.