Gina Gardiner & Friends with Chris Freer

Chris Freer I’ve never had a straightforward path. I was born prematurely in 1959. Medical staff back then suggested my mum terminate the pregnancy because she had been very ill with the previous conceptions and in their opinion, only one of us would survive the birth. This wasn’t the case however, as we both survived. When I think of it now, that early fight set the tone for much of my life, defying the odds, getting back up, and pushing through challenges I thought I couldn’t handle. Growing up in East London, life was pretty typical for the time – my mum stayed home, my dad worked long hours. I didn’t see much of him, and when I did, it wasn’t easy. Our relationship became strained and, at times, violent. I was terrified of him, to be honest. School didn’t make things better. I struggled with reading, couldn’t spell to save my life, and constantly got labelled “thick.” Teachers said it, my dad repeated it, and eventually, I believed it. I was shoved into the bottom sets, called a troublemaker, and often bunked off school. No one seemed to care much, so I found other ways to feel useful- cleaning cars, ferreting for rabbits, and selling them to pubs! I discovered I could work, I could make money, and that gave me something school never did – confidence. I then got a job on Romford Market at first putting up the stalls and eventually working on various different stalls, life was good. When I left school I had no qualifications, but I did manage to get myself an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer and found I could learn in this environment. It was a practical work based apprenticeship with only one day of college a week, I qualified. When I was about 13 to 14 years of age I started to play Snooker and much of my free time was spent in the snooker club in Romford I loved the game and found I was good at it, rising in the ranks and played matches for money often being backed by adults I did play a best of 9 match for £1000 a lot of money back then, and won. By my 30s, I looked like a success story. I had built multiple businesses, made great money, but under the surface, I was exhausted, constantly stressed, and ignoring all the warning signs. I kept pushing, telling myself I’d rest later. Then, in 2002, I got hit with the reality – Multiple Sclerosis. It took years to diagnose. My marriage fell apart, I sold the businesses, and ended up in a wheelchair, told there was nothing more they could do. In 2007, I hit rock bottom. I tried to take my own life. I didn’t see a way forward. That was the lowest point in my life, but what I didn’t realize at the time was that it would become a turning point for me. In the months that followed, something shifted. The way I thought, the way I saw life, everything began to change. My actions, and the consequences of them, had a profound impact on me, and set me on a completely different path. Website: https://chrisfreer.co.uk